The Newcastle striker sustained a thigh injury in the first half of England's 1-0 friendly victory over Austria in Vienna and could be out for a month, according to reports.

Peter Crouch scored the only goal from David Beckham's 44th-minute corner and Lampard believes the tall Liverpool forward is capable of filling the void left by Owen.

"It is a huge blow. We all know Michael's quality but if results go our way (England need Russia or Croatia to drop points tomorrow) it give us a chance to qualify," he said.

"Crouchy has shown what he can do today, and Jermain (Defoe) came on. We will have to get on with it and use the squad."

Crouch was satisfied with the performance despite the friendly being of little use to their Euro 2008 qualification hopes.

"It is difficult to come away from home, wherever you go. We should have maybe made it easier for ourselves in the second half," he told Sky Sports.

"The main objective is Wednesday - we need to get a result there if we can get a result (from one of their rivals) tomorrow."

Crouch has scored 11 times in 13 starts for England and he said of that impressive record: "I'm really proud of it. The lads made a few chances for me."

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England manager Steve McClaren also expressed his disappointment at the loss of Owen, who joins Wayne Rooney and John Terry on the injured list, while Rio Ferdinand is suspended for Wednesday's match.

"It's a massive blow but injuries are part of football," McClaren told Sky Sports 1

"It's unfortunate but I do believe we need to win on Wednesday to qualify.

"We go into the match without two centre-halves and two centre-forwards but, if it comes to it, I believe there is enough spirit."

The former Middlesbrough boss was frustrated by his team's efforts in the second half but was eager to stress the heartening aspects of the game.

"It was important that we came through it and won it," he said.

"In the first half, we got quite a lot out of it. It was good but we could have scored more.

"The second half disappointed me in some ways. I expected us to go on the attack and get more goals but we were disappointing in the second half.

"But there were plusses. Scott (Carson) kept a clean sheet, (Joleon) Lescott and Sol (Campbell) were formidable and Frank (Lampard) on his return to the team was man of the match and rightly so."

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McClaren went on to brush aside any concerns over his future in charge of the side, insisting qualification was his only concern.

"I'm not worried about that (being sacked) at the present moment," he said.

"It's just about results. It's over after 12 games, not after 10 or 11. We'll see what happens tomorrow night.

"There's still games to go - a difficult game for Russia, a difficult game for Croatia and Macedonia.

"We have to hope results go our way. It's happened before in the past and it can happen again."