• Premier League

Woodgate fears England career is over

Jonathan Woodgate has written off the prospect of playing for England again, saying he has "no chance" of adding to his eight international caps.

After being released by Tottenham over the summer, Woodgate, 31, signed for Stoke in a pay-as-you-play deal. The central defender has featured in three of Stoke's Premier League fixtures so far this season, with Tony Pulis' charges getting their current campaign off to an unbeaten start.

"I'm really enjoying it," he told ESPN. "I've played a few games, it's been good. We're unbeaten in eight, four in the league and four in Europe so it's been a really good start."

Despite joining a new club and enjoying his football again, the injury-plagued defender does not believe he will be able to force himself back into the national side, fearing his England career could be over. Woodgate, whose last cap for his country was in 2008, has dismissed claims that a period of sustained good form could see him earn an international recall.

"No chance, I've got no chance," he said. "I'm concentrating on playing for Stoke, week in week out. There are a lot of top centre halves out there at the moment and I've got no chance really to be honest."

Woodgate has admitted he is "disappointed" after being left out of Stoke's Europa League squad. Stoke will cover a total of 11,000 miles on their three away trips to Dynamo Kiev of Ukraine, Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv and Turkey's Besiktas and manager Pulis stopped the defender from travelling over fears that his old injuries might reappear.

Woodgate said: "I'm obviously disappointed because you want to play as many games as you can. I understand where the manager's coming from. It's not a problem, you take it on the chin and get on with it."

Despite Stoke's busy programme, Woodgate believes if they can maintain their good start to the season then they will not be affected by the hectic schedule. "If we're winning I don't think it will be that hard. Because when you're winning all you want to do is play games and there's not a better feeling than winning football games, tiredness doesn't really come into it."

Woodgate has been plagued by injury problems during a career in which he has played for Real Madrid, Spurs and Newcastle and had words of thanks for Pulis taking a gamble on him.

"[Tony] said the lads are top-notch and it's a great club with great supporters," said Woodgate. "As soon as I spoke to him I thought, 'He really wants me, he's taking a chance on me. He seems really keen to have me'. When you're wanted, it's a good thing, especially when you've been injured."

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