Albert King sings in Born Under A Bad Sign, “If it wasn’t for bad luck , I wouldn’t have no luck at all”. Dean Ashton knows how the old Mississippi blues-man felt. After another missed England opportunity in midweek, the West Ham striker’s international career has had more false starts than the Grand National.

Still only 24, Ashton might have had that many caps by now. Instead, he was passed over for a juvenile tourist (Theo Walcott) at the last World Cup, broke an ankle in training the day before he was due to make his debut in Steve McClaren’s first match in charge, was recalled last season at home to Estonia and promptly strained knee ligaments, and was due to be picked last weekend, only to be ruled out of the dreadful 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic by a phantom injury that turned out to be cramp.

Consequently, the man once tipped to be the new Alan Shearer has been restricted to just 45 minutes in an England shirt, in the friendly away to Trinidad and Tobago at the end of last season. Even that first cap was the cause of embarrassment, as well as elation, Fabio Capello telling Ashton that he was overweight. Dressing-room banter being what it is, nearly every teammate who passed by as we chatted at West Ham’s training ground on Friday mentioned pizza, or pies, but Ashton is big enough to take it, in every sense.

Having just parked his Porsche Cayenne in the middle of the motor show that is Chadwell Heath, he admitted that the money footballers earn was ample compensation for criticism of almost any sort - even from Disgusted of Wembley last Wednesday. An articulate young man, capped by England at every level from under17s up, he is both polite, apologising for being a few minutes late (Sol Campbell once kept me waiting for 2½ hours and didn’t) and disarmingly honest (he accepts he needed to shed surplus avoirdupois and that he “didn’t set the world alight” on his international baptism).

It seemed an appropriate starting point to clear up his omission from Capello’s latest squad. The England coach was at Upton Park to check on Ashton and saw him score twice against Wigan, before hobbling off. Some four hours later, the man of the match suffered premature ejection, Emile Heskey getting the nod instead. Ashton said: “I went to take a free kick and my calf cramped up. The staff said they didn’t want to take any risks, so I came off. The club wanted me to have a scan the next day to make sure that it was just cramp, and because I was waiting for that, and the squad was being named on the Saturday night, England assumed I was unavailable. I knew it was only cramp, so obviously I was really disappointed to miss out.”

It was ever thus, or so it seemed. “Because of the timing of the injuries I’ve had, before England games, I’ve been labelled injury-prone, but anybody can get a bone broken,” Ashton said. “That’s nothing to do with fitness or strength. My ankle was broken [in a collision with Shaun Wright-Phillips] before we played Greece, that was just bad luck. Then I got back and had a minor strain to my medial ligament, which put me out against Estonia. That’s it really. It’s a myth that I’m injured a lot. That’s another reason why I was so disappointed last weekend – because it was made out that I was injuredagainwhen I wasn’t.”

There is still plenty of time to forge an international career, but frustration is starting to creep in. Ashton said: “If I hadn’t broken the ankle I would have started that game. They won comfortably [4-0] so I might have scored a couple and played ever since. And I was only 22 then, but there’s no point dwelling on that.”

It is widely accepted that England need an “old-fashioned” centre-forward, in the Shearer mould, and Ashton contended that the role was up for grabs. He said: “For a long time there hasn’t been a player of that type who has done so well that he has to be in the team. When Michael Owen is fit and playing regularly, clearly he deserves to be in. You always think he’s going to score. But apart from him, nobody can say, ‘I’ve played so well that I deserve that place’. A lot of strikers, including myself, are looking for their chance, but you need time on the pitch - more than the 45 minutes I got in Trinidad.” In Port of Spain, Jermain Defoe eclipsed him, scoring twice in a 3-0 win. “To me, being a forward is all about scoring goals, so I’m never happy if I don’t,” said Ashton. “I’ve watched the video of that game and I had one good chance, which I didn’t take, but it was my debut, I was very nervous, and I thought I did okay.” Capello was more worried about his physique than his finishing. “When I was injured, I was in the gym a lot, and I’d really bulked up,” Ashton explained. “My body fat percentage wasn’t high, but I was big from doing weights. When the England manager tells you you’ve got a chance if you trim down, you do it. I really knuckled down.”

Ashton signed a new, five-year contract this summer with West Ham, who face Manchester City today, and anticipates an improvement on last season’s 10th place. “We’d like to be challenging for the top six,” he said.

For the past two years, Alan Curbishley and his team had been hampered by a debilitating sequence of injuries. Bad luck, or was there perhaps more to it? “I’m not a physio, but I have my opinions. Let’s just say that I didn’t use the medical team here for my rehab, I used my own man, Jon Green, who has worked with Michael Owen as well.” The “Claret and Blue Army” was as loyal as they come, but they were not the easiest fans to play for. “They can turn on their own, and there are times when you think, ‘That’s a bit unfair’.” With England, too, criticism came with the territory. “I don’t think it’s fair that when [Frank] Lampard left the field the other night he was booed, but it’s part of football and you’ve got to take it on the chin. These are the strongest players in the country, mentally, as well as the best. I’d be nervous about playing for England at Wembley for the first time, but I wouldn’t feel intimidated by the crowd. At the moment, England seem to be like a club team struggling against relegation when they shouldn’t be. Sometimes you get into that losing habit and develop a negative mindset.”

Hammers look to Ashton to win battle of the wannabes

DEAN ASHTON
Position Striker Age 24 Clubs West Ham United (Jan 2006 - present), Norwich (2005-06), Crewe (2000-2005) England caps 1 (v Trinidad and Tobago, June 2008) England goals 0 Club goals 95 (Premier League 22, Championship 51, League One 9, FA Cup 8, League Cup 5)

MAN CITY V WEST HAM
- Both clubs are of similar mid-table stature with ambitions of a place in the top six. Since rejoining the Premier League in 2002-03 City’s average finishing position is 11.8. West Ham, back in the top flight since 2005-06, average 11.3

- City have finished one place above West Ham for the past two seasons. In their past four Premier League games against City, West Ham have managed just one goal, and are looking to Dean Ashton, left, with five goals in his past four league matches, to turn the tide

- City have conceded 12 goals in their last two league games and it is eight matches since they kept a clean sheet. They have also lost six of their past eight league matches. The Hammers have gone 13 league games without a clean sheet and 29 matches since a 0-0 draw