Martin O’Neill believes that Emile Heskey chose Aston Villa ahead of Liverpool partly because the striker recognises that he has a better chance of retaining his England place at the Midlands club.

Heskey signed a contract until the summer of 2012 to complete a £3.5 million transfer from Wigan Athletic last night and be reunited with a manager who helped to lift him into the England team ten years ago, when the pair prospered together at Leicester City.

O’Neill is convinced that the experienced Heskey, at 31, can help to bring the best out of the likes of Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young, who, in their early twenties, hope to join their new team-mate on England’s plane to South Africa for next year’s World Cup finals.

Heskey signed after the midday deadline for today’s FA Cup fourth-round tie away to Doncaster Rovers, so he is in line to make his Villa debut away to Portsmouth on Tuesday and his home bow next Saturday, when, ironically, Wigan are the visiting team at Villa Park.

With Martin Laursen, the captain, ruled out yesterday for two months after undergoing knee surgery, Villa’s challenge for honours is in the balance, given their thin squad, O’Neill has used only 18 players in the Barclays Premier League, in which they sit fourth, but Villa have a unity and a momentum that has taken them ten league games unbeaten and into the last 32 of the Uefa Cup.

“I’m delighted he’s come,” O’Neill said. “We haven’t got the largest squad in the world. John Carew is coming back [from a back injury], but he’s a week or two away and Emile couldn’t be arriving at a more important time. He’ll give me a boost, and give the football club and the players a boost.

“He can play with Gabby and he can play with John, if it comes to that. I have no doubts he’ll improve us, and improve the likes of Gabby. I’ve heard Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney say he’s really great to play alongside [for England], so that’s good enough.”

It had been expected that Heskey would run his contract down and leave on a Bosman free transfer for Liverpool in the summer. But Steve Bruce, the Wigan manager to whom O’Neill paid credit for bringing the best out of Heskey at the JJB Stadium, decided to take a fee now, once the player had indicated that he wanted to join Villa. “He would have had a number of suitors in the summertime with his contract up,” O’Neill said. “Considering the fees being bandied around this particular January, I think he’ll represent great value.

“If Liverpool had been one of the teams in for him, he might look and see that they’ve got a £20 million player \ who doesn’t get a game every week. So if he plays the requisite number of games here over the next year or so, that will give him the best chance of keeping things going with England as the World Cup finals approach.”

Certain rivalries have added spice to the signing. Heskey, after leaving Leicester for Liverpool, spent two years under Bruce at Birmingham City, Villa’s neighbours. O’Neill dismissed the notion that his bitter feud with Rafael Benítez, who failed to entice Gareth Barry to Anfield last summer, was the deciding factor in signing Heskey. “It never entered my mind, honestly,” O’Neill said.

Luke Young and Ashley Young are also missing for today’s awkward game, both suspended, but O’Neill did not appear too confident that he would buy again before the transfer deadline passes on February 2.

O’Neill joked that he would be reuniting an old England strike partnership this summer when it was suggested that he would be in for Michael Owen when his contract with Newcastle United expires. “He’ll be signing, no problem,” the Villa manager said. “I’ve not looked that far into the distance. I think Gabby Agbonlahor has been incredible for us. What happens in the future I’ve no idea. Anything’s possible. Kaká’s always a possibility.”