West Ham´s Dean Ashton has been told to anticipate a call from England coach Steve McClaren this week.
Ashton´s club – West Ham – are currently trading at a juicy price of +325 with Bodog to beat Aston Villa this coming weekend.
The England boss named Ashton into his first ever squad and has made no secret of his admiration for the muscular front man. That first call up preceded England´s friendly win over Greece in August last year. However, Ashton´s dreams of an international breakthrough were shattered when he broke his ankle in training.
But the 23-year-old has recently scored three goals in his last four games for West Ham to catch the eye of McClaren who said: "Dean has forced his way in. It was very disappointing about the injury at the start of last season with England. I have been watching him from pre-season onwards and he certainly comes into consideration."
The big man´s return to form could be right on cue when you take into consideration the health doubts surrounding Michael Owen.
Face mask wearer John Terry has also been rated a possible doubt given that the Chelsea skipper will fly to Valencia for his side's Champions League clash with facial protection to guard his fractured cheekbone.
It would seem that injury news and England matches go hand in hand recently. The build-up to last month's wins over Israel and Russia at Wembley was littered by daily reports on the fitness of Steven Gerrard.
McLaren insisted that Gerrard play with painkilling injections for England last month – a decision that angered Gerrard´s club Liverpool. And it would seem that McLaren will insist that Terry and Owen play through their respective injuries for England.
"Sometimes you do have to be ruthless," he said. "There are one or two players who played against Russia who had little knocks and injuries that maybe we wouldn't have risked normally. But because it was such a big game they risked it and we risked it."
McLaren added: "There are two weeks to the next game and there is still a lot of time. Nothing will be done without they say-so of the clubs or without liaison with their medical teams but I name my squad on Friday and I would like those two players in it."
