Michael Owen is out of the World Cup and flying back to England after injuring his knee against Sweden, the England Football Association confirmed.

CRI Special: FIFA World Cup 2006

England striker Michael Owen leaves Max Grundig hospital at Buhlertal, near Baden-Baden, after a scan on his knee which was injured during England's 2-2 draw with Sweden Wednesday June 21, 2006. (AP Photo/Martin Ricket/PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT NO SALES NO ARCHIVE MOBILE/PDA USAGE OUT

The 26-year-old striker twisted his right knee in the second minute of the 2-2 draw with the Swedes in Cologne.

He had a scan near England's training camp at Baden-Baden on Wednesday.

"Obviously it's a massive blow to suffer the injury - and be out of the World Cup. As soon as it happened I knew I was in trouble," said Owen.

Owen said that he would return to England and work with the Newcastle medical staff to start a recovery programme.

"I'm clearly sorry to be leaving the lads in Germany, but I'm convinced they can go on and achieve success.

"I'll be following all the matches very closely and giving them my full support, hopefully all the way to Berlin.

"My main objective is now to get fit as quickly as possible for Newcastle United."

Sven-Goran Eriksson said: "Michael has had terrible luck with injuries since Christmas.

"I feel very sorry for him to miss out on the rest of the World Cup - it's a blow to him and a big loss for the team.

"However I am sure Michael will work very hard to get back as quickly as possible for Newcastle and England.

"He is a true professional and a very mentally strong person."

However Eriksson said his team was still capable of lifting the World Cup despite the loss of Owen.

"I think we can easily handle the situation because we haven't seen Theo Walcott yet.

"We have the players in the squad who can play second striker such as Joe Cole and Steven Gerrard and Aaron Lennon can do it　too.

"I'm not that worried about it. We don't want any more injuries on strikers but I'm not worried," added Eriksson.

The bad injury caps a nightmare season for Owen, who returned to English football last summer in a 17 million pound switch from Real Madrid to Newcastle.

He enjoyed a successful start to his Newcastle career, but broke his foot on New Year's Eve at Tottenham.

Owen battled back to play at the World Cup but looked less than fully fit and was substituted in both of England's opening games,　without scoring.