Emile Heskey in action for the Newscastle Jets. He will miss the game against Adelaide United. Picture: Liam Driver. Source: The Daily Telegraph
ADELAIDE'S jinx on the superstars of A-League football continued as an injury to Newcastle Jets superstar Emile Heskey has forced him to dodge facing Adelaide United at Hindmarsh tomorrow night.
Heskey's absence compounds the misery faced by SA soccer fans who also missed out on watching Italian star Alessandro Del Piero for Sydney FC against Adelaide at home on New Year's Eve due to injury.
Del Piero's no-show left a bitter taste in the mouths of many SA soccer fans before Heskey was sidelined by a calf injury.
Former Adelaide United gloveman Mark Birighitti says Heskey will be a big loss for the finals-bound Jets.
Heskey - the former Liverpool, Aston Villa, Leicester City and Birmingham and England striker - lives next door to Birighitti in Newcastle.
"I'm very good mates with him," Birighitti said.
"I'm pretty much with him every day on and off the pitch, he's a great guy to have around the club and I'm learning from the best.
"He's got no family here they're all back, his kids and that are in the UK so we're out for dinners and coffees."
Out of the three big A- League marquee players signed this season only Japanese marvel Shinji Ono has featured for Western Sydney Wanderers at Hindmarsh - twice - in a 1-0 Reds win in October and a 2-4 loss.
But while Heskey will remain in Newcastle, Reds 2012 club champion Zenon Caravella has passed a Jets fitness test and is likely to travel after he was released by Adelaide in January.
And SA revelation Craig Goodwin - who wasn't deemed good enough to earn a Baby Reds youth contract - has been named in the 19-man Jets squad.
Birigihitti will be back in Adelaide for the first time since June after signing for Jets last year.
But after arriving in Adelaide as a 16-year-old from Perth in 2008 and living with Serg and Sarina Bria and their children at Rostrevor, Birighitti admitted that being on his own for the first time after moving into a Newcastle home was a shock to the system.
Sarina works for United in marketing services.
"In Adelaide I was looked after by the Bria family like I was one of their own sons," he said.
"Moving out by myself it was hard at first but my mom (Fran) made it easier when she came over to Newcastle at the start last year."
The explosive gloveman made a nightmare debut for Jets when he was red-carded in the opening round of the season in a 2-0 loss to Adelaide in October.
Birighitti then fractured his cheekbone in November when Wellington Phoenix's Jeremy Brockie's knee accidently connected with the gloveman's face in a one-on-one situation.
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