Pietersen to play clown to calm England's Ashes nerve

Injury has forced him out of action in the Ashes but Kevin Pietersen will hobble into England's dressing room on the morning of the series-deciding fifth Test for some banter with his teammates.

"I'll be hobbling into the dressing room on Thursday morning for an hour or so to see if the lads are smiling and to let them abuse me for a while," Pietersen quipped in his column for 'The News of the World'.

"I won't be telling them what to do or how to do it because that's not my job," he added.

The Ashes is tied 1-1 and England have to beat the Australians in the final Test at Old Trafford to win back the coveted urn.

Pietersen, recuperating from an Achilles surgery, said the hosts need a hero in the final match.

"This has to be a week when every single England player looks in the mirror and asks: Do I want to be hero? Because it's there for the taking, the chance to be the nation's saviour," he said.

Pietersen said the English players should not get distracted by the hype surrounding the match.

"The easiest thing in the world is to get distracted. So my advice to the boys is to switch off the TV and the radio, concentrate on what they've got to do against the Aussies and focus on nothing else...because nothing else matters," he said.