Neville...

By The Nark End
March 22 2010

PHIL NEVILLE THINKS HE MAY HAVE A CHANCE OF GETTING IN THE ENGLAND WORLD CUP SQUAD THIS SUMMER.....

Everton captain Phil Neville has not given up hope of fulfilling his dream of playing in a World Cup finals.

The Blues skipper helped the side to a seventh consecutive home win in the league on Saturday, with a 2-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers. 

His continued consistency for the Toffees as a right-back has led to some pedia speculation about Neville's chances of a late call-up to the England World Cup squad.

Fabio Capello has had problems at right-back recently, with Glen Johnson recently back from injury and Wes Brown suffering a broken metatarsal. 

Neville - who has won 59 caps for the Three Lions - admits he would be delighted if he was to be selected in the final 23 World Cup squad, to be announced by Capello on June 1. But he is also realistic about his chances of being selected and concedes he is an outside bet for a seat on the plane to South Africa.

“I’ll keep playing to the best of my ability and it’s up to the England manager to select the best players available,” he said.

“But at the back of my mind he’s not picked me in a squad yet so maybe my time’s gone.

“This is probably the first time I’ve had a sustained run at right-back in my Everton career and obviously there are not many right-backs available apart from Glen Johnson, with Wes Brown injured.

“There is a chance to be the understudy to Glen so every English right-back in the country has got to fight tooth and nail for that spot and I’m no different.

“I’d love to go to a World Cup, I’ve been to three European Championships but never a World Cup – I always seem to miss out at the last hurdle,” he continued.

“It probably would be my greatest ever achievement but I think I’m well down the pecking order.

“In 1998 I was in the last 28, in 2002 the last 30 and in 2006 I was in the last 30 again so I’ve been close.

“If I was ever going to be in the squad it would have probably been the last one – there was probably no right-back available.”