Manchester United striker Michael Owen says he still dreams of playing for England but knows his chances of featuring in Fabio Capello’s side again look remote (United 16/5 – Premier League outright).

The 30-year-old last played for the Three Lions when he came on as a substitute in a 1-0 defeat to France in March 2008 and he was never a contender for the current squad to play Montenegro in Tuesday’s Euro 2012 qualifier.

Veteran Bolton forward Kevin Davies has finally been called up for international duty and Owen, who has scored an impressive 40 goals in 89 appearances for his country, believes he could still do a job for England (England 9/1 NOT to qualify for Euro 2012).

He told the Daily Mirror: “I haven’t resigned myself to never playing for England again.

“But I’m not stupid enough to get myself worked up before every squad’s announced and then go ‘oh no, the world’s caved in and I’m not in it again’.

“Everyone deals with things in different ways. The first time I wasn’t named in the squad I was really gutted. The second time I was pretty gutted, the next time I was just gutted and so on.”

Owen has only started two of United’s games so far this season but has scored three goals, and he remains hopeful that the call from England will come again at some point. However, he admits he does not expect to see his name in the squad every time Capello confirms his selection.

“I’d love to play for my country again, but I don’t look out for the squad expecting my name to be in it, unless someone phones me to tell me otherwise,” he added.

“I still have a lot of friends in the team and you can’t play for your country for as long as I did and not still have an interest in how they’re doing.”

Owen will be hoping to feature for United against West Brom next weekend after he came off the bench recently to score a vital goal in the 2-2 draw at Bolton.

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