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London team striker Dean Ashton suffered a shin injury during the national team training and will be forced to miss both the return of the London club to European football (the club will participate in the UEFA Cup) and could debut in matches for the England national team - on Wednesday the national team will play friendly matches with Greece.
The 22-year-old striker was supposed to start the match in the starting lineup, but due to a broken shin, his place will be taken by Jermaine Defoe, whose partner in the attack will be Peter Crouch.
D. Ashton moved to the London club at the beginning of this year. It was a record amount that the West Ham team has ever paid for a player, and it seems they will pay even more. For the transfer, West Ham immediately paid Norwich 7 million pounds (about 10 million euros), but the amount should increase by another 250 thousand pounds.
According to the transfer agreement, the club will pay half of the amount of four million pounds if D. Ashton makes it to the England national team, and the other half if West Ham qualifies for any European club tournament while being represented by D. Ashton. It seems that at least one of these conditions will definitely be met - the team will participate in the UEFA Cup matches.
The debut in the England national team will have to wait, but it will probably still happen, as the new coach Steve McLaren wants to see the player's potential.
