Daniel Sturridge has rubbished claims that he was disinterested while sitting on the bench for England in a recent friendly against Australia.

The Liverpool striker was photographed texting on his phone while the Three Lions played the Socceroos at the Stadium of Light late last month, indicating that he was perhaps unhappy with his standing in the national team.

However, Sturridge addressed those allegations at Three Lions training in Chantilly on Tuesday, revealing that he was conversing with family members regarding his new charity and the fact he was not even in the match day squad was not the reason for his apparent disinterest.

"It was my first annual charity event for the Sturridge Foundation in Birmingham that night," he said.

"My family had put the event on and they were texting me the whole evening.

"Of course I'm watching the game. It's important to watch my team-mates play but if I receive a text message about my charity event then of course I'm going to reply to it. That's important to me, just as much as it is here.

"I'm trying to do something positive for my community in Birmingham, as well as in Jamaica. Of course, I want my team-mates to do well and there was no disrespect at all on my part.

"The manager came to me and said he had no problem with it because I was sat behind the bench and not on the bench with the team."