Since the start of the season Walcott has been an integral part of Fabio Capello's England team, and the 19-year-old rewarded his coach by scoring a hat trick against Croatia.

"Theo knows what he's good at and Michael Owen was exactly the same," Ferdinand was quoted as saying by Sky Sports on Thursday.

"He knows he has talent, he knows he has good attributes and if he is used in the right way he will be almost impossible to play against for most players."

The Manchester United man added that Walcott reminds him of Owen's breakthrough at the 1998 World Cup in France.

"I was with Michael the whole time at the 98 World Cup and you just knew he knew that he was a good player and what he was good at."

"He's playing his part in goals and setting up a lot of goals and getting on the end of a lot of things himself."

Both Ferdinand and Walcott will be taking part in England's double World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan and Belarus on October 11th and 15th .