STOCKTON, Calif. — Logan Schuchart could see victory at the Stockton Dirt Track with three laps to go. He could see his opportunity to sweep the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series races at the track. And he could see collecting the $20,000 award for winning the NOS Energy Drink Showdown.

However, he could also see his Shark Racing teammate Jacob Allen leading, searching for his first World of Outlaws win.

Cruising down the backstretch, he saw Allen’s Drydene No. 1a car power into turn three, heading for two laps to go. When Schuchart exited turn four, he no longer saw Allen in front of him. The white-and-blue No. 1a slowed and pulled into the infield.

The lead was Schuchart’s. And after two clean laps, so was victory.

“It’s a tough deal,” Schuchart said. “I’m happy to get the win. It’s awesome to have these cars up front. Whatever happened, this team works really hard to keep these cars on the race track.”

The victory was Schuchart’s seventh of the year — further breaking his record of winning at most four wins in a season — and 15th career World of Outlaws win overall.

While he celebrated in victory lane with his Drydene cladded Shark Racing team, Allen was back at the trailer diagnosing an engine failure with his crew under a full moon Friday the 13th night.

“Pretty much a heart break,” said Allen, trying to find the words to describe the loss. “It’s kind of tough.”

The Shark Racing duo was fast all night. Schuchart qualified third and Allen fourth — both setting times that broke the previous track record. Ten-time series champion Donny Schatz set quick time and a track record with a time of 12.543 seconds.

Schuchart and Allen went on to both finished second in their Drydene Heat races. Then finish third and second, respectively, in the DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash won by Austen Wheatley.

Wheatley and Allen made up the front row of the 30-lap feature — both attempting to win their first World of Outlaws race.

On the initial start, Wheatley hit the throttle and wheeled onto the frontstretch, allowing Allen to get the jump on him and pull away with the lead into the first turn.

His comfortable lead was eliminated in two laps when the first caution came out for Shane Stewart going off track in turn two. On the restart, Allen launched back to the lead, but Wheatley stayed close and got side by side with Allen through the first corner. Allen had the better grip on the high groove and drove away from Wheatley down the backstretch.

While Allen led, David Gravel worked his way around Schuchart for third and after dueling with Wheatley for eight laps moved into second. By that time, Allen had found himself in heavy lapped traffic. Gravel was able to gain yards on him every lap.

However, once Allen found clean air again, he left Gravel searching for speed by pulling away to about a straightaway lead.

With nine laps to go Allen caught more traffic, including Brad Sweet, and got loose exiting turn two. He lost traction exiting turn four, too, unable to hold his line. That allowed Gravel to go from being a straightaway back to being at Allen’s tail tank.

Allen continued to run the low line into turn one and Gravel darted high to try and get a run around him. However, the move cost Gravel a chance at a win. Going high opened the door for Schuchart to dive underneath. The two almost made contact at the apex of the corner, hurting Gravel most. Schuchart accelerated away from the Mesilla Valley Transportation No. 41 car down the backstretch.

“I kind of punched myself in the head there after that,” Gravel said. “I tried to pass Jacob on the top going into one and two, ended up giving the spot to Logan.”

Now, the only car Schuchart saw in front of him was his teammate. With seven laps to go inches separated the Shark Racing drivers due to a caution for Tim Kaeding going off track in turn two.

On the final restart of the night, Allen rocketed ahead of Schuchart. Schuchart couldn’t keep pace with his teammate and in the closing laps found himself having to hold off a hard-charging Schatz, who got around Gravel for third.

With three laps to go, Allen wore the appearance of a first-time winner. While driving through turns three and four his fairy tale turned into a horror movie when the engine let go.

“After that last restart, it felt like it was kind of starting to lose power a pinch,” Allen said. “But it’s hard to say. You know, you’ve got a lot on your mind. There’re only a few laps left. You’re just trying to finish it and win the race. It’s a pretty shitty deal really. I don’t know. It sucks. I guess it’s just part of it.”

Allen’s misfortune became Schuchart’s gain as he inherited the lead and drove to his second straight win at the Stockton Dirt Track.

“He was way faster than I was,” Schuchart said about Allen. “It showed after the restart. It’s tough. Once Jacob got to the lead, he was gone. I couldn’t really hit my marks there for a few laps. I was just trying to make myself wide. I was happy to run second in this race. But I’m a competitor at the same time. I was going to try and pass him if I got the spot.

“Jacob, he’s been working really hard at this deal. It’s tough. It takes a lot out of you. Especially when you get beat all of the time. But he’s right there. We’ve seen it in the past. I hope he can get his spirit up and win one of these things. I’ve never been so big as a fan as I was running second tonight.”

Schatz finished second and Gravel had to settle for third. With Schatz’s runner-up finish he was able to retake the points lead over Brad Sweet, who finished 10th. The reigning champion is now 14 points ahead of Sweet heading into the final California race of the year.

To see full results, turn to the next page.

Big Picture

South Africa's Vision 2019, their grand plan for 50-over World Cup success, went completely awry. World Cup hangovers aren't easy to shake off, but South Africa will now have to quickly shift their focus to the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia. They are set to trial a new set of players - largely plucked out of the Mzansi Super League and the South Africa A sides - under a new captain in Quinton de Kock.

A few of these players were also part of a spin camp in Bengaluru last month, held to help them come to grips with Indian conditions ahead of the three T20Is and three Tests. And, while some of these players have also been part of the IPL, South Africa's squad lacks T20I experience on the whole. All told, their squad has a collective experience of 220 T20Is while India's potential top three - Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and captain Virat Kohli - have a collective experience of 219 games in the format.

ALSO READ: The T20 game: India haven't figured it out yet, but they are willing to change

Hashim Amla, Imran Tahir and JP Duminy have all retired from international cricket following the meltdown in England and Wales, while Faf du Plessis will tune up for the Test series with an extended spell at Kent. In their absence, the onus is on de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen, who has established himself as a well-travelled and versatile franchise T20 player - to lead the way with the bat.

ALSO READ: 'I'm going to feel 21 again' - Bavuma awaits dream T20I debut

Kagiso Rabada, who was troubled by injury in the World Cup, will test out his hamstring, and 25-year-old tearaway Anrich Nortje, who had been sidelined from the entire World Cup with injury, will be awaiting his international debut. South Africa have at least nine matches to figure out their combination ahead of Australia 2020 while India have the bigger cushion of at least 17 games to work with.

The hosts have already begun their build up, having swept West Indies 3-0 in the Caribbean last month. They are now going to have to adapt to the changing T20 landscape, a departure from their safety-first approach in the previous T20 World Cup in 2016. This series is another chance for the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey and Rishabh Pant to settle in the middle order.

With India's premier spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal swapped out for this series too, finger-spin-bowling allrounders Washington Sundar and Krunal Pandya and legspinner Rahul Chahar will look to push their cases for a longer stint in the team.

Form guide

India WWWLL (completed matches, most recent first)
South Africa WWTLW

In the spotlight

Around this time last year, 19-year-old Washington Sundar was at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, recovering from an ankle injury sustained while playing football during training in England. Washington doubted if he could be effective with the white ball on return, but he overcame that and posed a threat to the left-handers in the Caribbean and then was among the wickets in the one-dayers against South Africa A. South Africa could have at least three left-handers among the batsmen - de Kock, David Miller and Andile Phehlukwayo - and Washington will relish bowling to them.

Rassie van der Dussen stood out with his nous and middle-order gears amid South Africa's World Cup rubble, and even had du Plessis earmarking him as a future captain. He has also been there and done that in domestic T20 competitions at home, CPL, MSL and Global T20 Canada, and also has a reputation of being a good player of spin. Now, it's over to him to replicate that form in T20Is and take full charge of the middle order as South Africa rebuild for another World Cup.

Team news

Having been rested for the Caribbean tour, allrounder Hardik Pandya is set to slot back into the side. It remains to be seen whether KL Rahul or Shikhar Dhawan partners Rohit Sharma at the top.

India: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan/ KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Ravindra Jadeja/Rahul Chahar, 9 Washington Sundar, 10 Deepak Chahar, 11 Navdeep Saini

South Africa's XI following the World Cup shake-up is hard to predict. Temba Bavuma, who has been widely perceived a red-ball player, might make his T20I debut, while allrounders Andile Phehlukwayo and Dwaine Pretorius are likely to fit into the lower-middle order.

South Africa: 1. Quinton de Kock (capt & wk), 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Temba Bavuma, 4 Rassie van der Dussen, 5 David Miller, 6 Andile Phehlukwayo, 7 Dwaine Pretorius, 8 Bjorn Fortuin/Anrich Nortje, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Junior Dala, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi

Pitch and conditions

The pitch, too, is hard to predict, considering the rain threat. The pitch had to be covered because of afternoon showers on Saturday. Some rain has been forecast for Sunday too. The last time India faced South Africa in Dharamsala - it was the first T20 at this venue, in 2015 - South Africa hunted down 200 as Rohit's hundred went in vain.

Stats and trivia

• There is a case for South Africa to pick Junior Dala and let him have a crack at Rohit with the new ball. The seamer has dismissed Rohit three times in seven balls in T20s.

• Since his T20I debut in December 2017, Washington has claimed nine wickets in the Powerplay. Only Sri Lanka's Akila Dananjaya, England's David Willey, and Australia's Billy Stanlake have taken more wickets in the first six overs in T20Is, but they have all had the benefit of playing more games than Washington.

MS Dhoni is there. He is also here. While being at places that are neither here nor there.

We don't even know where he is physically, but he sits in the minds of important people and rest of Indian cricket even as a home international season starts. His absence, and yet his presence, is all the more significant as this season begins with T20Is, a format that will remain India's focus for the next year or so, leading up to the T20 World Cup at the start of the Australian summer next year.

And Dhoni is not here as India begin their planning for the world event. Nor is he retired. Or injured. He is not rested; that happened during the West Indies tour. Nobody dares utter the word "dropped". All we know is, he is not here, and yet he is.

He is on captain Virat Kohli's mind. He often is. He tweeted about him out of the blue two days ago. He is on Indian cricket Twitter's mind: retiring one day because Kohli tweets about him out of the blue, and trending on another as #12yearsofcaptainDhoni. He is on the minds of the selectors, who want to focus on Rishabh Pant as the T20 wicketkeeper, but have to keep fielding questions about Dhoni, who hasn't yet retired or disclosed his plans. Not to the selectors at least.

On the eve of the first T20I against South Africa then, it was natural Kohli would be asked about where Dhoni sits in his mind. Not in the mind of Kohli the person, who is not surprisingly fond of Dhoni, but in the mind of Kohli the captain. This is what Kohli had to say:

"Look experience is always going to matter whether you like it or not. I mean there are a numerous number of times people have given up on sportsmen, and they have proved people wrong, and he has done that many times in his career as well. So one great thing about him is that he thinks for India cricket. And whatever we think, he is on the same page. The alignment is there. The kind of mindset he has had is to groom youngsters and give them opportunities, and he is still the same person."

Make what you will of it. One thing remains, though: that basically he is not here but he is still here.

"It was a lesson for me, that the world doesn't think the same way as I do." Virat Kohli, after his tweet on MS Dhoni

There can be more than one interpretation of this, but the likeliest one is that the team sees there might be a need to move on from Dhoni, but is still not 100% satisfied with the replacement. And that Dhoni knows it. He understands that the replacements be given ample opportunity, will live with it if he is not required, but will be ready if he is. There are about 27 matches before the World Cup so there is time to go back to Dhoni if Pant doesn't convince the team management.

This is not too dissimilar to what happened when Dhoni was left out of the home ODIs against Australia, the last ones India played before the World Cup. Except that right now they have time. Pant has time. Taking both of them to the World Cup can't be ruled out either, depending especially on the performance of other middle-order batsmen. The temptation to use Dhoni's experience still remains. It might be fair to assume his mind is not made up yet, and he has a two bob each way.

As far as the retirement talk goes, Kohli believes it is Dhoni's prerogative, and Dhoni's alone. "When you decide to stop playing is an absolutely individual thing, and no one else should have an opinion on it, that's what I think," Kohli said. "As long as he is available and continues to play, he is going to be very very valuable."

And, he said, he has learnt his lesson after his tweet the other day assumed monstrous proportions. It was a photo from their World T20 win against Australia in Mohali in 2016, when he and Dhoni had a match-winning partnership. Indian cricket Twitter went into meltdown thinking Kohli knew something about an announcement around the corner. "It was a lesson for me," Kohli said. "That the world doesn't think the same way as I do."

It is a game Kohli is fond of. It is a man he is fond of. The meltdown must be a reminder to him how much what he thinks about Dhoni matters to Indian cricket right now. If Dhoni doesn't make the decision himself, it is Kohli who will be instrumental to the call on whether Dhoni is still there or not. For now, though, Dhoni is still there even though he isn't.

BEIJING -- Donovan Mitchell scored 16 points and handed out 10 assists, Joe Harris scored 14 and the U.S. defeated Poland 87-74 on Saturday for seventh place at the World Cup. Khris Middleton had 13 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Americans, who will head home with a 6-2 record -- yet their worst placing ever in a World Cup, world championship as it used to be known, or Olympics.

Derrick White scored 12 and Harrison Barnes added 10 for the U.S.

Mateusz Ponitka scored 18 points, Adam Waczynski had 17 and A.J. Slaughter finished with 15 for Poland (4-4), which was in the World Cup for the first time since 1967.

The Americans put together a 10-0 run in the first quarter to take a 28-14 lead. Poland started 0 for 13 from 3-point range, not getting one from beyond the arc to fall until Michal Sokolowski connected with 1:28 left in the half -- and by then, the U.S. lead was 18.

There was little to play for except pride -- and the Americans were playing with the realization that, for some of them, it easily could be their last time wearing the red, white and blue uniforms with "USA" across the chest. The roster for the U.S. trip to the Tokyo Olympics next summer is likely to look considerably different than this one.

It had much meaning to Poland coach Mike Taylor as well. He's an American, who lives in Florida, and mouthed along with the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" when it played pregame.

His team wasn't eager to quit, either.

Down 17 at the half, Poland made it a very serious game after intermission. Waczynski's 3-pointer from the right corner late in the third got Poland within 54-47, and Lukasz Koszarek had a 3-point try that would have gotten his team within four with 8:21 remaining.

TIP-INS

U.S.: Kemba Walker (neck) didn't play, joining Boston Celtics teammates Jayson Tatum (left ankle) and Marcus Smart (left hand) on the U.S. injured list. White started in Walker's place at point guard. ... Timing is everything -- the 6-2 record for the U.S. here was better than silver-medalist Serbia (5-4) and bronze-medalist France (6-3) at the last World Cup. But losing in the quarterfinals doomed the U.S. medal hopes.

Poland: The team had three players who played at the Division I level -- Slaughter was a four-year player at Western Kentucky, guard Karol Gruszecki spent two years at Texas-Arlington and center Dominik Olejniczak started his career at Drake, then played two seasons at Ole Miss and will play this year at Florida State as a graduate transfer. ... Poland started 4-0 in China, then dropped its last four games.

GIVEAWAY ITEMS

Mitchell was the last U.S. player to leave the court in the pre-warmup period, ending about 45 minutes before game time. He took off his sneakers and tossed them to a couple of young fans in the crowd.

UP NEXT

U.S.: Has already qualified for 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Poland: Will participate in qualifying for 2020 Tokyo Olympics next year.

BEIJING -- After finishing seventh in the FIBA World Cup with a victory over Poland on Saturday, Team USA coach Gregg Popovich issued a rebuke for those criticizing his team for its worst-ever showing in a major event.

"Some people want to play the blame game, there's no blame to be placed anywhere," Popovich said. "They want to play the shame game, like we should be ashamed because we didn't win a gold medal? That's a ridiculous attitude. It's immature, it's arrogant, and it shows that whoever thinks that doesn't respect all the other teams in the world and doesn't respect that these guys did the best they could."

Team USA played with just nine players in their 87-74 win after Kemba Walker missed the game with a neck injury. Walker said he thinks he'll be ready for Boston Celtics training camp at the end of the month. His Celtics teammates Jayson Tatum (ankle) and Marcus Smart (leg injuries) also missed the game. Tatum missed six of the eight games in the tournament, Smart missed three.

Much has been made about 31 of the 35 players who started last summer on Team USA's roster pulled out of playing for the team. Another handful pulled out after being added to the roster. From 2018 when the group was announced as Popovich took over as coach, only Walker, Khris Middleton, Harrison Barnes and Myles Turner were in China.

"Their effort was fantastic. They allowed us to coach them," Popovich said. "You give people credit for what they did and that's it. But it's not a blame and shame game, that's ridiculous."

After the team flies home on Sunday, they players and coaches will return to focus on their NBA teams. But the clock is already ticking on USA Basketball. The Tokyo Olympics are next July and significant changes to the roster are likely.

"This isn't really the time to even think about that," Popovich said of the Olympics. "It's 10 months away."

MALPAS, England -- Michael Owen laughs a lot. It's one of the first things you notice when you are in the company of the former Liverpool, Real Madrid and Manchester United forward. The common perception of Owen is that he is, and always has been, an extreme version of the modern-day sportsman who has been managed and polished to within an inch of his life, but the reality is very different.

We are chatting in the Owners Lounge at Manor House Stables, a thoroughbred horse racing training complex deep in the Cheshire countryside, which was nothing more than a cattle barn when Owen bought the land in 2007 as a post-football investment. While the camera is being set up in the stables to film Owen's first interview since the publication of extracts of his autobiography, "Reboot," we discuss the fallout from the book, including headlines about his broken relationship with Alan Shearer, controversy surrounding his comments about former club Newcastle United and criticism of David Beckham. (And, of course, two of his former clubs square off this weekend when Liverpool host Newcastle at Anfield.)

There has been widespread surprise at Owen's candour and readiness to be blunt; it's a side of his character he's kept well-hidden since bursting onto the scene as a teenage sensation with Liverpool in 1997. But he laughs again when reminded of the time he scored his first goal for Manchester United. It came at Wigan in August 2009, and after the match, Owen walked past reporters asking for a post-match quote before turning on his heels to tell them to "F--- off, because you're always caning me..."

"Yeah, that wouldn't have been a first," he said, laughing. "I was probably right as well!"

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Owen is surprised that people have been surprised about his true personality, but he hasn't lost any sleep over it.

"I've taken my tin hat off to chat about this!" Owen tells ESPN FC, following the initial reaction to the revelations in his book. "I've written a book that's open and honest, talking about my career. It's been interesting, quite a therapeutic process in the beginning, but now that it's in the mainstream, it's causing quite a lot of opinion.

"But look, to get to the top of any profession, you need unbelievable drive, confidence and the ability to filter out anything that is going to have negative impact on your mind."

Behind the laughter and the smile, it is fairly obvious that Owen is a tough, hard character to the point of appearing cold to outsiders. Perhaps it's a result of being a child prodigy, the son of a former professional footballer (Terry Owen played over 300 games, including a spell at Everton) who spent his young life being groomed for the stardom which came at such an early stage of his career.

By the time he was 18, Owen had become a first-team regular at Liverpool and emerged from the 1998 World Cup as the most talked-about teenager on the planet after scoring his stunning individual goal during the second round defeat against Argentina. He was the Kylian Mbappe of his day, his scorching pace combined with an ability to score goal after goal after goal, but there was always an element of the "brand" being the most precious commodity, with Owen's persona carefully managed to the extent that he never quite connected with supporters at any of his clubs.

Opinions back then were simply not on the agenda.

"A lot of the time when you are playing, you are slightly gagged," Owen says. "You can't be talking about Liverpool if you play for Man United."

He scored 158 goals in 297 games for Liverpool, but even at Anfield the affection for Owen is lukewarm, at best, largely because he signed for bitter rivals United after leaving Newcastle in 2009.

"When I left Newcastle, the two real options were Everton -- David Moyes wanted to sign me -- and Manchester United," said Owen. "You could say that I was doomed to be criticised by Liverpool fans at that time, no matter what I did, because their two biggest rivals were the two biggest moves for me. But that's fine. I'm certainly not sitting here apologising for anything.

"If I had the time again, in that situation, I would do the same again. In no other walk of life would you be criticised for having ambition: people would applaud it. But because I chose to sign for a club at the top, to play in the Champions League, you get castigated for the colour of your shirt. I'm never going to change that 'you wore red, he wore blue, so I hate you,' mentality."

There it is again: that cold, hard honesty. Owen just does not do sentiment or play the game of telling supporters what they want to hear.

In his book, Owen admits that by the time he left Liverpool for Real in 2004, he was earning more from commercial deals than from club wages at Anfield, an admission that underlines not only his global status at the time but also that sense of Owen the brand being bigger than Owen the footballer. As Sir Alex Ferguson says in the foreword to the book, "Another factor in Michael's career was the way he led his life; no arrogance, no partying, a good family life, respect for his parents, his manager and team-mates: all in all, a completely rounded young man."

The problem for Owen, though, is that all of the above conspired to create the image of a footballer who was hard to love. "Over the years, I've inevitably run into a fair amount of criticism about various aspects of my career," he said. "In my case, people complained that I wasn't loyal enough to this or that club, was 'always injured,' boring."

But does it bother him? Does he care?

"A throwaway line from Alex Inglethorpe, the Academy Director at Liverpool, summed up everything for me," Owen writes in his book. "He told me that I had the best s--- filter of anyone he'd ever met. To many, all I've ever been is a voice -- a not very interesting one at that, some would say -- or a face on a television screen.

"This 's--- filter' is at the core of it all and I hope everyone enjoys getting a brief glimpse into my head."

April 12, 1999. It was certainly the end of the beginning for Michael Owen, but the subsequent years also proved it to be the beginning of the end and, in many ways, the root cause of those accusations that he was injury-prone.

Liverpool played Leeds United at Elland Road. Steve McManaman split the Leeds defence with a pinpoint pass to Owen, who collected the ball and raced towards goal until he pulled up sharply and collapsed to the ground on the edge of the penalty area. The Leeds crowd cheered, mocking Owen as he rolled around on the turf, clutching his right hamstring, which was torn from the tendon. The YouTube footage is difficult to watch considering the implications of the injury.

Owen was still only 19 at the time. He would go on to win the Ballon d'Or two years later and move to Real in 2004, but he tells ESPN FC that the injury at Leeds changed everything to the point that he could have quit in his mid-20s.

"Yeah, 100 percent," he said. "Back in the day, when I did the injury, they didn't do surgery on muscle [injuries]. If they did, it was extremely rare, so it was an injury that was going to catch up with me later in life, mainly in terms of speed, and this is one of the most frustrating things about what people have accused me of when I have said that, in the last few years of my career, I didn't enjoy it as much as in my early years.

"I think that's a perfectly fine and honest thing to say. I was right at the top of my game and I have countless recollections to prove how high my standing was during the first half of my career, but just think of the mental toll it takes when you've done that but then have to accept that players who are, with all due respect, half as talented as you, almost taking the ball off you.

"At 26, I couldn't even run past them anymore. I was having to tell myself to link the play because I couldn't sprint into channels anymore. It was alien to me; of course I didn't enjoy it as much as I did when I was at my best."

Losing his trademark pace was like a master craftsman being unable to use his tools, and Owen could sense his decline. In his book, he admits that the root of his rift with Shearer stemmed from the then-Newcastle manager believing that Owen was refusing to risk his fitness to help save the club from relegation.

Knee, hamstring and foot injuries marred Owen's career at Newcastle, restricting him to just 71 Premier League games in four seasons at St James' Park. He had a similarly injury-affected three seasons at Manchester United, making just 31 league appearances (he started only six league games for the club), but having been one of the biggest stars in world football as a teenager, he claims it was "torture" to have to endure such a painful decline.

"I enjoyed the game throughout," he said. "I'd have stopped playing at 25 if I hated it that much. I love the game now, I loved it at 33, but the mental torture of not being able to do what you could once do -- the brain is still telling you to do it -- you think, come and get it to feet because you can't expose yourself to sprinting.

"The older I got, the slower and slower I got, but how do you get used to being 'just a player'? My brain, my heart, my everything is about being the best, and when I couldn't be, it was just torture in my mind to feel like that. I can't understand how people don't understand that.

"I was almost dying a slow death when I was playing. The last year at Stoke, I hardly played, and it made my mind up. I vividly remember playing away at Crystal Palace. I hadn't played for six months, I was on the bench, hardly getting on, and I played [at Palace] and I just thought, 'I can't do this anymore.' I'm just not as fast or as strong as anyone anymore. Yes, I could still finish as well as anyone in the six-yard box, but I just vividly remember that I wasn't capable anymore."

For a player who achieved so much, Owen has a surprisingly long list of regrets. He smiles about them and does not project the image of a man weighed down by questions of what might have been, but they are there nonetheless.

Owen left Liverpool a year before Rafael Benitez's team won the Champions League in 2005, spent just one year in Spain with Real Madrid, signed for Manchester United a month after the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez and was part of the "Golden Generation" of Beckham, Ferdinand, Scholes, Terry et al., which failed to win a major tournament with England.

But such is Owen's character, and his pursuit of absolute excellence, that it appears he relishes setting his personal bar so impossibly high.

"I'm wired in a certain way," he said. "I'll regret anything if I can. If I win the league, I regret not winning it twice. If I win the Ballon d'Or, I want to win it two or three times. That's the way you have to think if you are at the top of your profession. But if I had one regret, with all the players we had, nobody will ever convince me that we didn't have an amazing team with England. It was so frustrating that we never won anything.

"Yet my trophy collection is my pride and joy, my memories. Sometimes you have a little five minutes looking at them, remembering how you did it, because the evidence is there. You just go into a room and see it all shining."

One of those trophies is the Ballon d'Or, which Owen won after helping Liverpool to a Treble of FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup in 2001. No Englishman has won it since, and although he believes the Premier League now possesses the players to produce a winner again, Owen does not expect an English player to emulate him anytime soon.

"I can't see it being in the next few years," he said. "We have some great players, but you'd think Messi and Ronaldo will be around for a bit yet. There's obviously Virgil van Dijk and other top-class players in the Premier League, but yes, it's going to be a while before an Englishman does it."

Michael Owen opened his Twitter account in November 2010, and it is fair to say he has endured a bumpy ride on social media ever since. For a player who generates more negative opinion than positive, it can be a daily grind of abuse and hatred for Owen, especially since going public on his rift with Shearer. He bites back more than most but also believes there is a difference between what happens in daily life and being at a computer screen.

"I think everybody gets [abuse] in my line of work," he said. "I've been used to that since social media started. It was my decision to go on it and interact with fans, and by and large, you do get amazing interaction on it and a lot of support through social media.

"In the street, no-one says anything, so you've got to take social media with a pinch of salt. I was having lunch in Manchester city centre with my wife and kids last week, and this is when I'm in all the headlines, and not one person has a go at you. Not one person says anything. I've never encountered anyone saying anything [face to face] like they do social media.

"But if you're not thick-skinned, there's no point going on it."

And with a shrug and a smile, Owen sums himself up. His skin is thicker than most.