Or else they are planning what to do next summer rather than watch a European Championship tournament without English involvement

There's no doubt about it. It is a backward step, the desperate act of a manager in Steve McClaren who knows that anything less than maximum points against Israel and Russia and he is off to football's version of a Siberian salt mine.

But, do you know what, it might just work. It might just be the short-term fix to rescue England's faltering campaign and save McClaren's job.

Not because Heskey is likely to score goals. He has managed five in 43 internationals and has one to his name for Wigan in the Barclays Premier League this season. Goals in the Heskey household are like tax cuts under Labour. Few and far between.

As the foil to coax the best out of Michael Owen, however, there is method in McClaren's madness, not least in the fact that in the 12 internationals they started together Owen scored 11 times, including three in that unforgettable 5-1 defeat of Germany in Munich.

True, that was six years ago and there is good reason why Heskey's most recent AA road atlas is dog-eared on pages highlighting Birmingham and Wigan and not London and Manchester.

Yet look at it from McClaren's point of view.

Wayne Rooney is injured and Peter Crouch suspended for Saturday's match against Israel.

That leaves him to pick a strike partner for Owen from Everton's Andrew Johnson, Tottenham's Jermain Defoe or Newcastle's Alan Smith.

Essentially, the first two are Owen clones, short and pacy but not in the same goal-scoring class, while Smith demonstrated against Germany that at international level he is a willing worker but lacks invention and athleticism.

Oh, by the way, none of them have actually scored in the Premier League this season. A small detail but not insignificant when goals have been the one glaring absentee from McClaren's most crucial competitive fixtures.

Joe Cole, too, has been spoken of as a makeshift partner but again his stature is similar to that of Owen and he has been warming the bench at Stamford Bridge just as Defoe has been largely redundant at White Hart Lane.

In short, and it is short considering none of them bar Smith is much more than around 5ft 8in, the cupboard is bare of strikers to complement England's most accomplished goal-scorer.

So McClaren has listened to Owen, who apparently told him that Heskey was the man for the moment.

It is risky. It always is when a manager allows a player to influence such a big decision but at a stroke McClaren's squad now possesses a formidable physical presence and a target man with the ability to shield and hold the ball, something of a problem in recent months.

Anyone who witnessed Heskey's one-man show for Wigan against Chelsea in an undeserved defeat at the JJB last season would be in no doubt of his enduring talent.

And Wigan manager Chris Hutchings describes his form this season as "colossal".

Well, he would, wouldn't he?

The point, however, is that on paper a rational case can be made for Heskey, even if he has not represented England since Euro 2004 during a career of serial underachievement.

Even when the very fact that McClaren has countenanced such a surprising move only focuses attention on the precarious nature of England's qualification hopes.

But it remains a gamble. If it fails no-one will be laughing, least of all McClaren.