Jimmy Bullard: England's New Hero

With the start of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers fast approaching, England have found themselves ravaged by injury. By far the worst area hit is midfield.

Normally, England have an abundance of top quality central midfielders. However, three of them (Steven Gerrard, Michael Carrick, and Owen Hargreaves) have now been ruled out through injury.

This has opened a rare window of opportunity for someone to come in and make a name for themselves. The man who has been given this chance is Fulham's Jimmy Bullard. And may I say, bravo Mr. Capello—I think this is genius.

I hadn't even considered Bullard for England, but I really can't see why not. He is a quality player, loved by almost every football fan, and almost single handedly saved Fulham from relegation last season after returning from a potential career-threatening injury.

Personally, I think he is too good to be playing for Fulham, no disrespect to them (I also think Danny Murphy deserves to be at a higher profile team). But, credit to Fulham, they stuck with Bullard through his injury, and have developed him into an England squad member.

At 29, it is the first time Bullard has been included in an England squad. Interestingly, he is also eligible to play for Germany.

It's still hard to see where Bullard will fit in in an England line-up. I can't see him making a debut ahead of Frank Lampard or Gareth Barry. But, if he does play, even as a sub, I think he will make a big difference.

He will give 100 percent, you can be sure of that, and he will do so with a smile on his face. Bullard loves playing football and his attitude will hopefully become infectious to the England squad.

Coincidentally, Michael Owen and Peter Crouch are notorious by their absence from the squad. This will especially hurt Crouch, as one of the major reasons for him joining Portsmouth was to play regular football, and so prove himself to Fabio Capello.

Matthew Upson is the only other somewhat surprising inclusion.

It will be interesting to see how Capello gets on with this squad. I really do want him to play Bullard in at least one of the games, because I think he could be our new, unlikely hero.