Emile Heskey admits he needs play more regularly for Aston Villa to increase his chances of going to next summer's World Cup finals. Heskey, an injury doubt for Sunday's derby away to Birmingham because of a tight hamstring, said: "My place (with England) is not nailed on. There's a lot of strikers that are doing well at times.

"You've got to keep yourself fit, keep yourself in good condition and keep doing well for your club.

"If you're not doing well for your club and not playing, then how can a manager pick you?

"I've got to do well for Villa and try and keep myself in the team. You're always happy when you're playing so I'm like everyone else.

"You can always have a player like Peter Crouch, who's done brilliantly, come back in and his record speaks for itself."

Heskey conceded: "I'm still finding my feet at Villa. It's nice to be involved in the England games and qualify for the World Cup, hopefully I will get more games at Villa.

"I've got to get into the Villa team but I'm confident in my ability.

"I don't know why it hasn't gone so well at Villa. I'm just concentrating on doing my best and trying to put the performances in.

"There's three strikers there so, with the 4-5-1 formation, it's difficult. I'm sure the manager will try to rotate it because there will be a lot of games so you just have to be on your toes and ready."

Heskey added: "It's a great achievement for me to have played over 50 times for my country. My motivation is playing football. Obviously you've got different carrots dangling in front of you.

"I want to just do well for Aston Villa and see what happens from there. Once you're doing well for your club, all sorts of doors open.

"Obviously with the World Cup coming up next year, you want to do well for your club to have that opportunity to play in it.

"You just want to do as well as you possibly can. You look at last season and want to try and improve on that. It doesn't always happen that way, but that's your main objective."