Sunderland boss Steve Bruce says Aston Villa striker Emile Heskey must be part of England's World Cup assault.

Astonishingly, Heskey has started as many games for his country this season as he has for his club.

Bruce told The Sun: "Before I signed Emile for Birmingham I had a long chat with Michael Owen about him. It was quite an in-depth conversation, during which Michael told me how much he enjoyed playing with Emile and how he helped his own game.

"Talk to anyone who has ever played with Emile and they will all tell you how good he is. I'm sure that Wayne Rooney appreciates the work he does. Rooney likes playing off him, because I think Rooney's natural position is to play off a big man."

Bruce says part of the reason for Heskey's continued selection is that there are very few players who have his physical attributes and are prepared to take a relentless battering.

Bruce said: "We don't have the number of real targetmen around that we used to have in the 90s. here were loads of them when I was playing - like Alan Shearer, Les Ferdinand, Ian Wright and Andy Cole.

There were probably 10 really good English centre-forwards - but where are they now?

"That's why you keep going back to Emile because, of his type, he's still arguably the best. We've got Peter Crouch but he's slightly different to an out-and-out targetman. Look at the performances over the years and you will see that when England have played well, Emile has usually been in the team.

"When he was brought back for the away game against Croatia, England won 4-1. When England won 5-1 in Germany, Emile was playing again - as he was when we beat Croatia again last month.

"The downside is he doesn't score enough but he contributes to the team, make no mistake about that. He hasn't won nearly 60 caps by accident."