Mikel Arteta is holding out hope of a late World Cup call-up for Spain after an impressive return with Everton from injury. Arteta was sidelined for a year with a ruptured cruciate knee ligament but has scored six goals in just 11 matches since making his first-team comeback.

"I'm thinking positively that I can maybe get a call-up - you never know," said Arteta.

"But it's not going to be easy as we've got some terrific players in the middle of the park.

"Some of the players in competition are at big clubs and winning trophies [and] playing in Spain is different.

"I just need to wait and see what happens in May."

Arteta added in the Liverpool Echo: "I've been working hard and I've been spending a lot of time in training to improve all the areas of my game and hopefully you can see that on the pitch as well."