The attacking midfielder has also spoken to au.fourfourtwo.com of his ongoing injury crisis that has almost derailed the season that saw him leave Adelaide to be closer to family.

“I really wasn’t thinking about joining another club after leaving Adelaide,” he said.

“I was going to go back and work with my brother but he didn’t have much work either but I needed income to pay for my operation and that’s when I got approached by the Mariners.

"They’ve helped me take care of a lot of things with doctors and have even said if it takes me two or three months to get me right, ‘so be it.’

Owens’ injury emerged in round 17 last season, meaning that he played the final rounds, including the Grand Final under a significant injury cloud.

“I felt like I was a passenger in the Grand Final and only at about 50 per cent. I couldn’t really run and I was just having a heap of injury problems.

“I’ve had a couple of operations now so it was just really starting to get to me. I was thinking, ‘I’m probably going to be crippled by the time I’m 30’."

Initially thinking he was suffering hamstring problems, Owens endured a number of unsuccessful cortisone injections but it took a neurosurgeon to pinpoint the problem.

Owens discovered he had a growth in his back, which had squashed a nerve, resulting in the hamstring pain.

“I had a back operation about six weeks ago," he revealed. "The doctors think it may be another four weeks and I don’t want to push it too hard at this stage.

"I’ve been running for the past week and a half though, so it’s a slow rehabilitation. The pain itself might be there for up to three months though, because the nerve had been squashed for so long.”

Owens is now looking forward to a strong season with the Mariners who he believes have a real chance of winning the A-League championship.

“Grand finals are once in a lifetime opportunities," he admitted. "I was pretty devastated with the end result and I’m pretty critical of myself.

"I want to show that I still have plenty to give and play as well as I can to hopefully get the Mariners back into the finals.”