Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe has backed Jermain Defoe to rediscover his form at club level and force his way back into Gareth Southgate's England plans.
The 35-year-old has been a part of the Three Lions' recent squads after a fruitful spell in front of goal for former club Sunderland, netting 15 goals in back-to-back Premier League campaigns.
Defoe has struggled to match that strike rate since returning to the south coast in the summer, however, notching just once in nine outings.
After being left out of Southgate's latest squad for the prestige friendlies against Germany and Brazil later this month, Howe has challenged the striker to get his head down and keep his World Cup hopes alive.
"I think in some respect he will understand, in respect, it's not a competitive game," he told reporters. "I think he will look at it and think he has every opportunity if he performs for us. He will still see that prize at the end of the season. I think it's up to us, and to him obviously, to put him in that position to be able to do it.
"[Our lack of goals] is not about Jermain to be honest. This season if there's been a criticism of the team, we've scored six goals, it's not enough. We haven't created enough chances with regularity, we've not been potent enough in the final third. So that's not about Jermain it's about the team.
"Jermain had a slight hamstring problem that took him out of training for about 10, 11 days. So the plan to play him against Chelsea [last game] was for about 60 minutes maximum, anyway. Jermain is fine. I think he'll have a big part, [have] a voice in our season. He's already scored a very important goal, he's had other chances to score and, again, the team has to create and be able to supply him with the chances that he needs.
"That's been the big thing from the team's perspective we haven't quite done that yet. We haven't quite done that this season with the regularity that we've always done it. So, from a team's perspective, we need to find ways to score."
Defoe did not play any minutes for England in their final batch of qualifiers, despite netting against Lithuania in March - his first goal at international level in four years.
Daniel Lewis
