Newcastle United and England fans are unlikely to see Michael Owen in action until March at the earliest after the striker suffered a setback in his treatment programme yesterday. Owen arrived in Colorado on Tuesday night ahead of anticipated surgery to repair his damaged cruciate ligament but a preliminary consultation with his surgeon, Richard Steadman, revealed a further complication.

This dictated that Owen, who injured his right knee in the opening minutes of England's World Cup draw with Sweden last month, would require two operations, rather than one. He has already undergone the first procedure, to repair slight lateral cartilage damage, and will remain in Denver until early next week before returning to the United States in September ahead of the principal surgery on his torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Owen can then anticipate a minimum of five months on the sidelines but could conceivably be out for significantly longer.

"We don't believe the added problem is too serious," insisted Freddy Shepherd, Newcastle's chairman. "Richard Steadman is the best in the world and if he has decided Michael needs two operations we are very happy to go along with him."

Owen, 26, was accompanied by Roddy Collins, Newcastle's club doctor, on the flight to Colorado and the pair will be joined by the physiotherapist Derek Wright today in order that the striker can begin some initial rehabilitation work.

"Lateral cartilage damage isn't particularly serious," said Nicholas Goddard, a leading consultant orthopaedic surgeon yesterday. "A lot of surgeons would clean that damage out at the same time as doing the anterior cruciate ligament repair but some choose to leave the cruciate to a later stage.

"It's a setback in the sense that it will slow down Michael Owen's recovery, but my feeling is that his comeback should be delayed by one, rather than two, months. The paradox of apparently slowing things down by doing it in two stages is that this enables patients to undergo something known as 'prehabilitation' which can help rebuild muscle tone."

The FA's insurance scheme dicates that the national governing body will pay just under 50% of Owen's £103,000 weekly salary. That is not sufficent for Shepherd, who is grateful he took out his own expensive policy to cover Owen in the event of such a calamity and knows that a gloomier scenario could see his £17m prize asset unable to play for nine months. "We'll be discussing compensation with the FA once the World Cup is over and we're hoping for fair play," said Shepherd.

An FA spokesman said: "It is worth noting that we are one of very few national associations who have an insurance scheme in place. We provide substantial insurance for the England players - who all have the same cover - which costs a considerable amount of money."