Injury blow for Heskey

Emile Heskey’s England recall could prove to have been painfully brief after the striker was whisked to hospital today with a suspected broken fifth metatarsal.

Heskey limped out of Wigan’s 1-1 draw with Fulham at the JJB Stadium after just nine minutes and it initially appeared the striker had simply turned his right ankle.

But it is now feared Heskey could have suffered a more serious injury which could lead to more than a month on the sidelines – and rule him out of England’s Euro 2008 matches against Estonia and Russia next month.

While Wigan officials privately feared the worst, boss Chris Hutchings said: “Emile has gone to hospital to have an X-ray and obviously we will just have to wait and see how bad it is.

“He just came down and rolled his ankle and whether he has also broken anything we don’t know. He tried to carry on but it was too painful.

“It is very disappointing for Emile. He didn’t want to come off because everyone who knows, Emile knows if he can stay on he will stay on. But we didn’t want to do any more damage and think long-term.”