"I didn't know what to expect there but everyone took to me - the fans and the other players were fantastic."

But Heskey, 40, was surprised by the laidback attitude to the sport in Australia.

"Aussies have such a different lifestyle that football is almost a sideshow," he said. "We'd train at 7.30am due to the heat before having the rest of the day to ourselves.

"One lad cut his foot open while surfing and was out for a month. I said. 'Mate! You can't do that. This is your livelihood!'"

Heskey was notorious among the Jets squad for dodging the beach as he was reportedly terrified of sharks, but he admitted there were plenty more fears haunting him in Australia.

"Living in the city meant you didn't really see anything except maybe the odd big spider," he said. "If you'd gone further north you'd definitely see everything - jellyfish, little spiders that can kill you, poisonous frogs...

"We trained on a university campus and the complex had loads of bushes filled with brown snakes and things like that.

"They're actually pretty dangerous... so it was best to just not think about it too much!"