Martin O'Neill challenges Emile Heskey to make the most of England retirement at Aston Villa

Aug 4 2010 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

MARTIN O’Neill has challenged Aston Villa striker Emile Heskey to make the most of his claret and blue career after his retirement from international football.

Speaking for the first time about Heskey’s decision last month to hang up his England boots, O’Neill is hopeful that the club could reap the benefits.

Despite O’Neill’s support for Heskey, the former Birmingham battering ram has struggled to make a consistent impact at Villa in the past 18 months.

And O’Neill admits it was purely Heskey’s decision, not Villa’s for the 32-year-old striker to put club before country and retire from the world stage.

“He’s made a conscious effort of doing that,” said O’Neill, who signed his former Leicester protégé from Wigan for £3.5m in January 2009.

“He feels now that international football is something he can do without and, of course, there’s weeks when you’ve got those international breaks that you can rest as non-international players can do.