Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill has spoken highly of Wigan Athletic striker Emile Heskey.

"When his confidence is high he is a player, strong, a handful, and he is now starting to go past players again," said O'Neill, who faces Heskey and Wigan at the JJB Stadium on Sunday.

"The thing that has always been levelled at him is that he has never scored enough goals, and it would be hard for him to say otherwise. But the Emile Heskey I know is the one who thundered past the full-back and made the goal for Wayne Rooney the other day. That is the Emile Heskey I fondly remember. So I have the utmost regard for him, and what he does for the rest of his life is down to him.

"If he does allow his contract to run out he will have a number of suitors because he has done very well, and that's of great credit to him. With his contract up in the summer, and with the way he is playing for Wigan and England, it would be difficult not to see him pushed back in the limelight.

"That's down to him, and to Steve Bruce, who has had a very good influence on his career, and Emile has warmed to that."

At no stage did O'Neill dismiss the link, so it could be a case of watch this space because it is clear he holds Heskey in high regard as a player and as a person.

"I've not been particularly surprised at his renaissance," added O'Neill. "Emile did wonderfully well during my time at Leicester, both on and off the pitch.

"I will never forget that he signed an extra year's contract with us when he could have allowed it to run out. If he had wanted to he could have gone off to Spain or Italy and played there for a season, then come back and signed for Liverpool, and Leicester would not have got any money.

"But we ended up getting £11million for him, so he did well for Leicester City in every respect. On the field we were doing superbly at the time, and we were disappointed to see him go because we were getting a side together.

"He partnered Stan Collymore up front, we had a strong midfield, decent defenders and a damn good goalkeeper, so we were going strongly. But Emile wanted to play for Liverpool, and he wanted to play alongside Michael Owen, so he left.

"He wanted to go and play for a big club, and it was hard to begrudge him that opportunity, particularly because he did it very fairly."