It has been a peculiar year for Heskey, who struggled to cement a first-team place at Villa after his move from Wigan in January, yet remained a fixture in Fabio Capello's first-choice England XI as they qualified with ease for South Africa 2010.

Last month Heskey denied he was considering his future at Villa Park due to concerns about his chances of making Capello's squad for next summer, and since then he has been given a starting spot by Martin O'Neill in Villa's last three matches.

Heskey will be hoping O'Neill selects him to lead the line again for Villa on Saturday when they host Bolton in the Premier League, but according to Davies, the former Liverpool forward need not worry about his place in the national team.

"I think Fabio is a big fan of his," Davies said.

"He's been in there ahead of strikers who are playing better and scoring more goals but I think as a target man, Fabio fancies him and likes the way he plays.

"I think he will be on the plane regardless, but like any player, you have to fight for your spot in your side and I'm sure he is trying to do that."

Bolton go into tomorrow's game looking to bounce back after suffering two consecutive 4-0 defeats at the hands of Chelsea over the last 10 days.

Those results - which came last week at Stamford Bridge in the Carling Cup and on Saturday at the Reebok Stadium in the league - have left some bruised egos around the club, but Davies hopes the experience will galvanise the players for the trip to Villa.

"I've been speaking to the players and it hurts," Davies said.

"But the only way (to respond) is to get to the next game and take your anger and frustration down there.

"To lose like that is a bit humiliating really. In the first half (on Saturday) we did play well and matched them - if it had stayed 0-0, we would have given them a few more difficult times.

"But we are not down about it, we lost a game against one of the best sides in Europe and the lads are fine.

"The training has been fine this week and with them (Villa) playing midweek (against West Ham), we'll try and use that to our advantage."

The Chelsea defeats brought to an end a run that had seen Bolton lose only once in seven games in all competitions.

That sequence included combative performances against Liverpool and Manchester United, and Davies insists that the last two results were an aberration which the players would not be dwelling on.

"We have been in worse positions and the atmosphere is always great here," he said.

"We don't ever allow ourselves to get down, we can't afford to, even though we are disappointed at conceding eight goals against them.

"It's not really like us, we've not conceded that many goals in one game, and every game we have played we have pretty much been in.

"Even against Liverpool and Manchester United, we have been in the game and had chances to get more out of it so it's disappointing to roll over the way we did."