Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson insists Michael Owen has a role to play in the title run in.

Owen is now on course to re-join his team-mates this week.

"He's certainly making good progress," confirmed Ferguson. "What happened was he came back into our training a couple of weeks ago and then after one of the sessions he did some physical work with the sports science team and overdid it. So it knocked him back a few days, but he should be joining us this week..

"If you think about ever needing a player to score an important goal for you is there anyone better than Michael Owen? He will be a really welcome addition to our squad, even if it were to be for the last few games of the season."