Hebberd could play in midfield or as a striker but it was wide on the left where he spent his four-game loan spell with Leicester between November 1981 and March 1982, when City signed him temporarily from Southampton, where he came through the ranks and started his career.

He helped the Saints to promotion to the top flight when he was still a teenager, but once in the top-flight his chances dried up, being limited mainly to being a bench-warmer.

To gain more first team action he moved on loan to Washington Diplomats and then Bolton Wanderers, where he played against the Foxes and caught the eye of then-manager Jock Wallace, who took him on-loan after his spell with the Trotters. Despite scoring once in four games, and never being on a losing Leicester team, Wallace didn't want to keep him any longer and he returned to The Dell before completing a permanent switch to Oxford United.