Chelsea captain John Terry says England's players are happy to count on Aston Villa striker Emile Heskey.

Terry is one of many fellow professionals who believe supporters' perceptions of Heskey are distorted by the paucity of his goalscoring.

"People judge strikers for their goals," said the Chelsea defender. "They are in the position where if they don't score goals they get criticised.

"I think Emile brings a lot more to the team than that.

"He set up a great goal for Steven Gerrard against the USA and had a chance to win the game himself. We all had chances to score and maybe we should have killed it off.

"If we look at his international record he has seven goals in 59 games but what he brings to the side is massive and the players appreciate that.

"We really see what he does for the team and sometimes I feel it gets overlooked by people."