Michael Owen and the Northern Rock hoodoo

They won't thank me for bringing this up but there's a rumour going round about a Northern Rock hoodoo.

This mysterious jinx claimed its latest victim when England striker Michael Owen collapsed to the turf on Tuesday night. Owen's unlucky injury to his cruciate knee ligament came as bad news to England fans and Sven - with his three strikers and one untried teenager policy looking a touch sparse.

But it will also have come as huge blow to the Newcastle-based bank for whom Owen is fronting a World Cup campaign. In the adverts - now withdrawn - Owen is pictured in the kit of his club Newcastle United, also sponsored by Northern Rock, with the slogan Can we have him back in one piece please? The answer now is sadly, 'no.'

This represents an unhappy hat-trick for Northern Rock and its sports star sponsorship. It's other two poster boys are England's Rugby World Cup winning star Jonny Wilkinson, who has suffered on and off injuries since the team's 2003 triumph, and England bowling colossus Steve Harmison, who played a pivotal part in last summer's Ashes win over the Australians and has since missed a raft of games with injury.

Could Geordies' talk of a Northern Rock hoodoo be true? Perhaps the company could sponsor Argentina for the rest of the World Cup to find out.

- Simon Lambert, This is Money

PS good luck with the recovery Michael.

Useful links

Saving and banking tips and advice

Mortgages and property news and features

This is Money's Protection Racket campaign

(How to post a comment)