LONDON - Michael Owen isn’t worried about the pressure of being England’s main striker at the World Cup. He’s too busy concentrating on proving he’s fully recovered from a broken foot that has limited him to 30 minutes of soccer this year.

With key forward Wayne Rooney struggling to rehab his own broken foot in time for England’s Group B games, and Liverpool striker Peter Crouch untested in international competition, the focus is directly on Owen, who’s relying on experience to cut through all the hype.

“I never get so excited that I can’t think, and I never get too low,” Owen said at England’s training camp in Portugal. “I’m able to keep a middle ground on a lot of things.

“The first time I ever played in the World Cup, I scored. The first time I played in a football match, I scored. The first time I played for Liverpool, I scored. If you do it the first time, it’s not a confidence thing, it’s deep within you that you know you can do it.

“I don’t go to sleep thinking about the pressure. I think about that little rectangle that I’ve got to smack the ball into — and that’s about it.”

The World Cup will be Owen’s fifth tournament with England. He made his mark at the 1998 event in France with a weaving solo run to score against Argentina, and has been England’s first-choice striker since.

Owen’s last two club seasons have been disappointing. The injury restricted his first season at English Premier League club Newcastle. He moved there after an underachieving 12 months at Real Madrid, where he struggled to remain a starter. Before that, he was at Liverpool.

“I think I’ve played 20 games this year between club and country. That’s probably 20 fewer than being perfect if you’re talking about preparing for the World Cup,” Owen said. “But in saying that, I prefer to have played 20 fewer than 20 too many. I’m raring to go, I’m fit, I feel sharp in training. I’m looking at it now as a positive thing.”

Owen said even without Rooney, England has “one of the best squads in the tournament,” but the attitude has to be right if it wants to advance beyond the quarterfinals.

“Every other country must be saying the same thing apart from Brazil — and maybe France, who won it eight years ago,” Owen said. “Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Argentina, their press must be saying the same thing to them. And if you keep drilling it into everyone, ’Are we perennial losers?’ you’re not doing any favors to our team.”

Owen said having an extra week’s preparation and the site of the tournament in Europe would help England, which hasn’t advanced past the quarters since 1990, where it lost in the semifinals. England’s only tournament title was the 1966 World Cup at home.

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“You have to think this World Cup year we’re playing in Germany, it’s going to be similar time zones, temperatures, style of football, pitches, everything,” Owen said. “It’s just whether we’re good enough as a team or not.”

The 26-year-old Owen made his England debut as a highly touted teenager, and is eager to see 17-year-old rookie Theo Walcott do well. Walcott made his first England team without playing this season for his club, Arsenal.

“Everyone’s got to welcome him into the squad and make him feel part of it, and hopefully by the time the first game kicks off he’s right into it and not feeling any nerves or apprehension anymore, and he can do well when called upon.

“He looks like probably I felt when I (started): shy and nervous. I was like that, Wayne was like that, everyone is. He looks sharp and lively.”

Exactly the way England needs Owen to look. And play.