Foot injury
Heskey sustained his foot injury ten minutes in to Wigan’s Premiership home game with Fulham on Saturday September 15th. The Wigan forward landed awkwardly after jumping in the air and, although the incident seemed innocuous, Heskey had to be substituted.
The Latics went on to salvage a 1-1 draw from the match, thanks to a Jason Koumas penalty, but there was bad news to follow. After the game it was confirmed that Heskey had broken a metatarsal bone in his foot; an injury that has been extremely common with high profile players over recent years, including most recently Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney.
Since sustaining the injury Heskey has had an operation to insert a metal pin into the broken bone but his club are currently unwilling to commit to any firm date at which he may return to action.
Upcoming England games
The set back could not have come at a worse time for the Wigan striker. Heskey had recently been handed a recall to the international side by England manager Steve McClaren for the home games against Israel and Russia.
After a string of poor performances and disappointing results, England won both games 3-0 to dig themselves out of a hole that could have threatened the team’s chances of qualifications for next years’ European Championships. Following a number of years in the international wilderness, the former Liverpool front man had received praise from many quarters for his form in the two matches.
Brought into the squad only because of injuries to other attacking players, and the suspension of Liverpool’s Peter Crouch, Heskey linked up impressively with former Anfield strike partner Michael Owen. Although the Wigan striker did not score himself in either of the games he helped Owen, who is himself on his way back from a season off due to injury, to three goals in two starts.
With his broken foot now likely to keep him out of action until sometime in October or November, Heskey’s chances of playing for his country in the future have once again been thrown into doubt.
England’s next crucial Group E match is at home to Estonia on Saturday October 13th and is followed on Wednesday October 17th by their away tie with Russia. With this in mind Heskey faces a race against time, not only to get fit, but to prove that he is worthy to retain his place with players higher up the pecking order now available for selection once again.
Future Premiership matches
Whether or not Heskey recovers in time to represent his country, it is certain that he will be absent from his club side’s line up for some big Premiership games.
Over upcoming weeks Wigan face two of last season’s top four, Liverpool and Manchester United. Perhaps more importantly in the overall destiny of their season, however, Wigan also have a home game against Portsmouth on Saturday October 20th and an away game against Birmingham the next weekend.
With boss Chris Hutchins not exactly blessed with an abundance of high quality Premiership strikers, Heskey’s value to his club is infinitely greater than his value to England and The Latics will have a difficult task in balancing their desire to get their first choice forward back as quickly as possible and ensuring that he is fully fit when he does finally return.
