O'Neill allays Heskey fears
Martin O'Neill has allayed fears that Emile Heskey could miss the start of Aston Villa's season.
The former Liverpool and Wigan Athletic star was involved in a nasty clash of heads during Villa's Peace Cup clash with Malaga at the weekend.
Heskey had to be stretchered off the pitch, but O'Neill has revealed that the striker suffered only mild concussion.
He said: "Emile's feeling a lot better. He was a bit disorientated and we felt that, having come back late and only playing a few minutes of the game, it was best just to take him off and make a substitution at that time.
"But he's feeling much better now. We'll have to monitor it each day but I don't think he'd be ruled out at this stage.
"John Carew, Stiliyan Petrov and Ashley Young played for just over an hour and of course, that affected us a little bit.
"We would, in general, have liked to have played the major players for a bit longer. That obviously weakened our team. But I think it was the right thing to do because they only came back to train on Monday.
"I was expecting to win the game. I thought we'd be capable of doing it. I'd have liked to qualify for the next stage. It's not beyond us but it's now out of our hands."
Updated 27/07/2009 15:08:15
The former Liverpool and Wigan Athletic star was involved in a nasty clash of heads during Villa's Peace Cup clash with Malaga at the weekend.
Heskey had to be stretchered off the pitch, but O'Neill has revealed that the striker suffered only mild concussion.
He said: "Emile's feeling a lot better. He was a bit disorientated and we felt that, having come back late and only playing a few minutes of the game, it was best just to take him off and make a substitution at that time.
"But he's feeling much better now. We'll have to monitor it each day but I don't think he'd be ruled out at this stage.
"John Carew, Stiliyan Petrov and Ashley Young played for just over an hour and of course, that affected us a little bit.
"We would, in general, have liked to have played the major players for a bit longer. That obviously weakened our team. But I think it was the right thing to do because they only came back to train on Monday.
"I was expecting to win the game. I thought we'd be capable of doing it. I'd have liked to qualify for the next stage. It's not beyond us but it's now out of our hands."
Updated 27/07/2009 15:08:15
Digital Sports Group