Heskey And Owen Could Do The Job

Heskey was handed a shock recall to the international fold.

He earned the last of his 43 caps against France in the Euro 2004 finals.

McClaren: "Emile is a player with a lot of international experience and has played many times with Michael Owen in the past.

"He has been in good form for Wigan this season. He played very well against Sunderland recently and I saw him play well against Newcastle on Saturday.

"While he has been out of the squad for a few years, I have spoken with (Wigan manager) Chris Hutchings who has been hugely impressed with him and I think he deserves to be recalled.

"We need his experience at this time.

"I've watched Michael Owen in the last couple of games, and he looks very sharp.

"He is going to be a massive player up front for us over the next two games.

"We are looking at what partnership and system will get the best out of Michael Owen.

"It was very interesting to see he played with (Mark) Viduka, then at half time (Shola) Ameobi came on - another big guy, a target man playing off him.

"It was interesting he had that during the week as well (in the Carling Cup win over Barnsley).

"So we're looking at different options. Unfortunately, we are missing Crouchy for this game, but we've got him for the second.

"So we're looking at the best permutations for Michael Owen, but also to score goals from other areas."