Frank Lampard insisted he had never considered himself undroppable by England after being recalled for their Euro 2012 qualifier against Wales.
Chelsea midfielder Lampard was surprisingly left out of Friday's 3-0 Group G win in Bulgaria, the first time he had not started a competitive international when available for four years.
That led some to predict the 33-year-old was all but finished as an England player but Lampard revealed after Tuesday's 1-0 win at Wembley that he still had the hunger to play for his country.
Look who's back: Frank Lampard battles with Jack Collison;
Lampard said: 'People like to give off the idea that players are expecting to play every game and we've never been like that.
'We're all professionals and driven, and our egos are only our desire to succeed individually and as a group, and we haven't quite done that for England.
'It should be competitive and I've had phases before where I've sat on the bench for England.
'The furore, I tried to stay away from this week and just tried to keep my head down and concentrate.
'I don't mind. I'm very proud to play and I'll play as long as I can contribute for England - and I feel I can do that.'
Done and dusted: Lampard was eventually replaced by Scott Parker;
Lampard claimed he felt 'excited', rather than threatened, by watching younger midfielders come to the fore in the past year.
'It's very good to see,' he added. 'It's good to see the Ashley Youngs - I know he's not completely a young player, but he's really blossoming at the minute.
'Stewart Downing, the same, on the other side. Jack Wilshere's injured now but, with the squad we've got now, there's some real attacking options, which in great to see.
'Chris Smalling at the back and Phil Jones, who I've been really impressed with at Man United, it's something that was maybe missing a year or so ago and people weren't quite seeing where it was coming from.
'All of a sudden now, we can see these ones sprouting up and that's great for the fans to see and us to see as a group.'
Impressive: Lampard hailed the emergence of Ashley Young;
Unfortunately for Lampard, he did little to suggest against Wales that his that his best days are not behind him, although he was not alone in underperforming.
He added: 'We weren't at our best - it was a very important win," he said of the victory that left England needing just a point to qualify for the Euro 2012 finals.
'A lot of people expected us to win the game comfortably but, having seen Wales get a good performance at the weekend and coming here with nothing to lose as such in terms of the group, I think they were always going to give us a tougher game than expected.
'We weren't moving the ball probably quite quickly enough to create as many chances as we'd like to.
'But I suppose you have to be content with a win and take the positives out of the week, as in the two games, and know where we are for the last game, which is the position we wanted to be in.'
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