For Sir Alex Ferguson to blame Michael Owen's season-ending injury on the state of the pitch tells you how bad things are.

Wembley is meant to be our football temple - the arena where the world's greatest footballers come to show us their skills.

But the only performers guaranteed a proper stage now are the rock stars and bands who perform there when there's no football.

In my book, there's been way too many of those concerts and non-football events at Wembley.

Is it any wonder the pitch is clogging up when thousands of fans are jumping up and down on it?

The pitch is the most important part of any stadium. But Wembley's is no good - and that's a national outrage.

The FA must never lose sight of the fact that Wembley's priority should be football.

Not Take That, U2 or whatever group is staging a concert there this summer. The pitch must be allowed to breathe and develop.

If music concerts and other non-football events are not helpful to the pitch, then they must not be booked.

If this affects revenue, then England fans may have to pay a little more for their tickets.

I realise this is not the popular option. But surely it is better than shortchanging fans by making them watch players struggling to get to grips on a sub-standard surface.

Owen's injury was an accident waiting to happen and a major embarrassment for the FA and English football - especially in a World Cup year when we are trying so desperately hard to attract the tournament back to these shores in 2018.

Our wonderful £800million national stadium is at the very core of that bid - and understandably so.

The arena itself is one of the best in the world - unless you're a player!

The facilities and views may be exceptional, but the pitch is becoming a laughing stock.

Now it seems it is also a danger.

Owen's injury will almost certainly prevent his inclusion in England's World Cup squad. The Daily Telegraph pays tribute to the striker, who must feel that he has played in his last major international tournament, in a funereal manner. Henry Winter pens the obituary to the 29-year-old's England career and hints that Fabio Capello has been wrong to overlook the goalpoacher for so long:

We will always have Paris and Casablanca. And Lisbon and Geneva, Tallinn and Charleroi. And, unforgettably, St Etienne, Munich and Shizuoka. Those who seek to chart Owen's formidable achievements for his country must equip themselves with an atlas as well as an abacus.

In amassing 40 goals, Owen set an England record by scoring in four consecutive tournaments, even striking in four separate continents, finding the mark in places as contrasting as New York and Tirana, Baku and Niigata.

Back from his travels, Owen delighted England supporters at home, scoring at Anfield, St James' Park, the Riverside, Portman Road, Old Trafford and at Wembley (Twin Towers and Single Arch).

But it is over. Owen's dream of finishing his career on a high, of gracing a fourth World Cup, has been ended by his oldest enemy, a shredded hamstring.

The one opponent this tough competitor could never defeat, a vulnerability to injury, has terminated his season and his hopes of a final hurrah with England.

How cruel that the injury should be sustained at England's HQ. Events at Wembley in last Sunday's Carling Cup final encapsulated Owen's career: a nerveless strike on a big occasion followed by the frustration of injury.

One of those watching on, Fabio Capello, a man not given to sentiment, has always been dismissive about his "tormentor'', ignoring Owen's reputation for scoring in major games.

As many England fans were quick to point out on their private message-boards, Owen should have been under consideration for South Africa simply as an impact sub, as a late rescue act who needed only a couple of touches to hurt opponents.