Bobby Zamora admits he was forced to put the national interest ahead of personal glory when he made the decision to remove himself from contention for England's World Cup squad.

The Fulham striker was enjoying a stunning season which had thrust him into Fabio Capello's plans until he suffered an Achilles injury last month.

Capello had intended to include Zamora in the provisional 30-man World Cup squad named on Tuesday, with the 29-year-old on course to make his England debut against Mexico on May 24.

But knowing that he required pain-killing injections to play, Zamora was forced to concede that he would not recover in time and told Capello.

Zamora limped through 54 minutes of Wednesday's 2-1 Europa League final defeat by Atletico Madrid in his last game of the season.

"I told Fabio that I was struggling and I knew that, had I gone, I wouldn't have done myself or England justice," he said.