You may remember not-so-very long ago when Pies broke the huge news that Michael Owen was a closet 1,000-piece equine jigsaw junkie. No? How could you possibly let an earth-shaking story like that slip from your memory?

Very well, let’s move on.

Seems like L’il Micky’s Manchester United teammates have now cottoned on to his penchant for the puzzle, taking a tell-all magazine clipping and blu-tacking it up in Owen’s segment of the dressing room wall at Carrington, along with a rather hurtful sticker that read ‘ZZZZ!’…

Poor chap. Can’t a guy just enjoy some horse in the privacy of his own home without having to be berated for it at work?

Via Metro.

                          

By Ollie Irish

“I’m too old for this shit.”

Manchester United club captain Gary Neville has been ruled out of the club’s pre-season tour of North America and Mexico because of a new injury.

The 35-year-old right-back will remain at the Carrington for treatment on a calf problem, as his United team-mates leave on Monday for Chicago.

Last season, Neville played well enough on his comeback from serious injury to earn a one-year extension to his contract. But a calf tear suffered in training means he won’t get to visit the Windy City this summer.

This is the United squad that will travel on Monday: Edwin van der Sar, Tomasz Kuszczak, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Dimitar Berbatov, John O’Shea, Wes Brown, Rafael, Jonny Evans, Darren Fletcher, Darron Gibson, Chris Smalling, Nani, Fabio, Federico Macheda, Danny Welbeck, Javier Hernandez (will join in Houston on 27 July), Mame Biram Diouf, Tom Cleverley, Ritchie De Laet, Corry Evans, Ben Amos, Gabriel Obertan.

As you can see, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Owen don’t travel either, and it seems both may also miss the start of the season. According to Fergie, Owen is the more likely of the pair to be fit in time: “Michael is doing great. He is working in the gym every day,” the United gaffer said. “I do not think he will be fit to go to America [correct] but he should be ready for the start of the season.”