Gabby Agbonlahor vowed that Aston Villa's England contingent will not allow their World Cup ambitions to get in the way of Martin O'Neill's Champions League crusade. Agbonlahor is one of half-a-dozen claret and blue players hoping to force their way into Fabio Capello's squad for next summer's tournament in South Africa, reports the Birmingham Mail.

"There is still a long way to go before players have to think if they will be in a World Cup or not," said Agbonlahor.

"That is not on our minds. It can only be good for the team that we are all playing to impress and get on that plane, players like myself, Ashley Young, James Milner, Emile Heskey, and we have Stewart Downing coming back. We will be trying to perform well and that can only be good for the club.

"This is what you want as a footballer but the World Cup isn't even on my mind at the moment. I just want to do my best playing for Aston Villa and then see what happens. Every season I have been looking to move on and I think over the last three season I have improved.

"I think this season for me I just want to keep on improving and scoring more goals. If I can keep on improving my game for the team as well you never know what can happen."