Aston Villa left-back Stephen Warnock accepts he faces a major battle with Manchester City's Wayne Bridge for a place in the England squad.

Both players are battling to be understudy for Chelsea defender Ashley Cole and Warnock told the Sunday Mercury: "Wayne Bridge is a great player.

"I think he's proved that for a number of years. He's gone to City now and he's at a very good team again and he's shown why the manager paid a lot of money to take him there and he's a more than worthy back up to Ashley Cole.

"You realise what you've got to achieve trying to get to his level. It's a high level but you've always got to aspire to that.

"That's why professionals are professionals because they look at other players and they don't think 'crikey I'm going to be put down by that' they say I want to try and reach the levels that they're reaching and I want to be as good as him if not better.

"That's why people get better and improve all the time.

"I'd like to think I was in the top three or four English left-backs, but there's only one person's opinion that matters when it comes to selecting the England team.

"It's up to him at the end of the day whether he thinks I'm fit enough and ready enough to go into that squad."