Parker goes from forgotten man to centre of attention

Scott Parker was named in Fabio Capello's provisional World Cup squad in May last year and, like the rest of them, he did the training camp in Austria and endured the long hours of boredom in his hotel that are part of the job. The difference between Parker and the rest of the 27 outfield players was that the midfielder did not play a single minute of either of the two warm-up games before he was cut.

It makes it all the more remarkable that 17 months on, at the age of 30, he finds himself a virtual certainty to start against Montenegro tomorrow and, for the future, a mainstay of the team even if Capello had all his first-choice players fit. In May last year, the impression was very much that Parker was there because Capello had no alternative but he would only take him to South Africa if he had to; now his status has changed.

Parker said: "I went to the pre-World Cup squad and I thought I did pretty well but I knew it would be difficult because I wasn't really involved in any of the qualifying matches. Obviously, injuries occurred and I thought I might have had a chance but it wasn't to be.

"Coming away from that initial disappointment, I thought it was going to be pretty difficult to get back in. I knew there wouldn't be a lot of opportunity. But I said to myself I will get my head down and let's see what happens and, thankfully, it has turned around. I got my chance."

His chance came against Denmark in February when, with England having been embarrassed by France at Wembley three months earlier, Capello brought Parker on at half-time and he impressed. England won 2-1 and the man who was voted the Football Writers' Association player of the year has been in every one of the five squads Capello has named since then.

"It is clear to see there are a lot of young players, very good players, coming in and people talk about my age but you could probably include me in that [group of new players]," he said. "I am 30 [but] I am new to this as well. It is an evolving England team, it is pretty attacking and it is looking up."

During his career Parker has developed as a predominantly defensive player. It was a conscious decision, he says, to give himself a better chance of succeeding.

"I went to Chelsea as [Claude Makelele's] understudy. From there I moved on. I'd like to think there is more to my game than just that, but I realise that my main attributes are on the defensive side.

"I think for England there has been a clamour for someone in that position. You need to be very disciplined. You saw in the Bulgaria game we had very good attacking players and when I am in the team I need to produce a disciplined performance that allows others to go and do their stuff."