Shearer insisted when he came to Newcastle in 1996, "I am not a target man ... I must feed off a strong striker ... which is why I work so well with Les Ferdinand".
But Shearer lost a yard of pace after that injury and had to change to become the 'target man'.
Owen is different, he doesn't have Shearer's strength. His game is 50% pace, and a change will mean a totally new direction.
Michael Owen: "You get older, you go a bit grey and get a bit slower. Once we start getting closer to 30 and into our early thirties, we are not supermen.
"We are normal people. It happened to Alan Shearer and it will happen to me.
"But I'm only 27 and still in my prime. I feel quick and strong. I probably have had to modify my game. When I was a whipper-snapper I was sprinting down the channels, beating hundreds of players and crossing balls in.
"I was creating as many as I was scoring when I was a kid. Obviously, I've had to adapt my game because I've lost a yard of pace from all those hamstring injuries.
"When I was 17-18, I was a greyhound and it would be hard to get as quick as that again. I play more in the penalty box than I used to but I know where the ball's going to drop better than most."