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| Emile Heskey © Action Images |
Emile Heskey is ready to quit Aston Villa in January in order to ensure he keeps his place in England's starting line-up in the run-up to next year's World Cup finals.
The striker has established himself as the first-choice partner
for Wayne Rooney in the England attack, but is acutely aware that
Fabio Capello wants all the players he takes to South Africa to be
starting regularly for their clubs.
Heskey, signed from Wigan for £3.5 million at the start of
the year, has started just one Premier League match this season
with Villa boss Martin O'Neill generally preferring Norway's John
Carew alongside Gabriel Agbonlahor.
"I'm happy to be playing for England and, obviously, not playing
at club level is difficult," Heskey said. "It's something I will
have to look at when I get back and try to address it."
Asked whether that meant he would seek a move in the winter
transfer window, the 31-year-old replied: "That's what I mean. I
will have to sit down and think about my next move. I don't know
whether I can get a World Cup place if I'm not playing for Villa.
"The manager hasn't really spoken to me about it. I just have to
keep performing well in training and keep going. But you always
wonder about those kind of things, whether it will affect my
chances. I will just have to try to address it when the time is
right."
Despite Heskey's lack of game time with Villa, Capello has kept
faith with him for England because he believes the forward's
physical presence and ability to hold the ball up creates space for
his team-mates, most importantly Wayne Rooney.
After suffering a 1-0 defeat by Ukraine on Saturday -- their
first competitive loss under Capello -- England will round off an
otherwise immaculate qualifying campaign against Belarus on
Wednesday.
With Rooney ruled out of the Wembley match by a calf injury,
Capello will have the opportunity to see how England can cope
without the Manchester United forward, whose outstanding
performance in Dnipropetrovsk was described as "incredible" by the
coach.
The most likely option involves Steven Gerrard being pushed
forward into the second striker role in which he excelled for
Liverpool last season.
Robert Green's red card in Ukraine means the West Ham goalkeeper
is suspended for the Belarus match. Manchester United's Ben Foster
has been added to the squad as cover but David James is expected to
start on Wednesday.
Aston Villa midfielder James Milner meanwhile has claimed that
England's experience of playing with ten men for almost 80 minutes
could prove useful in the future.
"Going down to ten men is a learning curve especially with it
happening so early in a match," said Milner, who came on for
Gerrard at half-time on Saturday.
"It might happen at some stage in the World Cup and it is about
using that as an experience and learning from it. We did well with
ten men and were unlucky not to get something out of the game."
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