MARTIN O’NEILL last night expressed his frustration with Fabio Capello for playing Emile Heskey in Spain on Wednesday night after the Aston Villa striker exacerbated an achilles tendon problem that makes him a major doubt for tomorrow’s FA Cup fifth-round tie at Everton. O’Neill said that he intends to speak to the England manager, whom he believes took an unnecessary risk by selecting a player who was not fully fit for a friendly match.
Heskey was withdrawn during Villa’s 2-0 win at Blackburn last Saturday after he complained that he was struggling with his achilles, but he was compelled to report for England duty to be assessed by the medical staff. O’Neill had expected Heskey to return along with Luke Young, who pulled out of the squad with a toe problem but, much to the Villa manager’s “surprise”, he played until half-time, when he was replaced by Peter Crouch.
O’Neill reported that the 31-year-old was unable to train yesterday because his achilles is “particularly sore” and suggested it was highly unlikely he would feature at Goodison Park, although he acknowledged Heskey may have contributed to the problem through his desire to “play in a bit of discomfort”.
“It’s a friendly game at the end of it all,” said the Villa manager, who had considered contacting Capello to urge him to rest several of Villa’s players. “Qualifying games are important to the wellbeing of the country. But it was a friendly game and you can lose. There’s always a possibility of players getting injured, but if someone has got injured beforehand, I’m not sure (playing them) is a risk worth taking.”
O’Neill is expected to start John Carew alongside Gabriel Agbonlahor because of Heskey’s injury. “He didn’t come off because he was tired. He actually had a problem, but England deemed him fit to play in the game. I have spoken to the England doctor and obviously voiced some concerns there. I will speak to the management team.”
Heskey’s setback could hardly have come at a worse time for O’Neill, with Villa facing three games in the next seven days that could define their season.
Following the Everton fixture, Villa host CSKA Moscow in the Uefa Cup knock-out stages on Wednesday before the pivotal meeting with Chelsea in the Premier League a week today.
It is a punishing schedule and one that may prompt O’Neill to prioritise the Chelsea fixture by resting players in the lead-up.
Meanwhile, the Premier League have confirmed that next season will kick off on August 15th and finish on May 9th – five weeks before the start of the 2010 World Cup.
The season will include a double-header on the Saturday and Monday of the August Bank Holiday for the first time in order to give Fabio Capello an extra week to prepare England for the tournament.
Under Fifa rules, domestic leagues have to end four weeks before the start of the World Cup finals but the Premier League have agreed to provide an extra week to help England’s preparations. Next season’s fixtures will be released no later than June 16th, the Premier League said.
The decision was taken at last week’s meeting of Premier League clubs and although many chairmen were not happy about the August double-header, it was deemed preferable to the other option which was starting the season on August 8th instead of August 15th.
Most chairmen preferred to have a longer pre-season and start the new campaign after the international friendly date on August 12th, when England play the Netherlands in Amsterdam.
The FA first negotiated an extra week for the 2006 World Cup after the pleadings of then-manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.
