Michael Owen enjoyed a stellar career as a prolific striker for England and Liverpool but said he would reflect in retirement on “what might have been” had he not been robbed of his incredible speed due to injury.

Owen, who said on Tuesday he would hang up his boots at the end of the season, burst onto the scene at Liverpool as a 17-year-old and also played at Real Madrid, Newcastle United and Manchester United before signing for Stoke City last year.  

“The second emotion that lives with me is a sense of ‘what might have been’ had injuries not robbed me of my most lethal weapon -- speed,” Owen wrote on his website (www.michaelowen.com) on Thursday. 

“Many of my highlights were early on in my career and I can only wonder what more I would have achieved had my body been able to withstand the demands that I was making of it.