Cahill will be a future star for England

We didn’t have much time off over the international break - we´ve been training hard and keeping focused on our next game, against Middlesbrough. It´s going to be a massive game for both teams.

It´s been nice to see Bolton´s players getting into the England frame recently. Both Kevin Davies and Gary Cahill made Fabio Capello´s provisional 28-man group but weren’t in the final squad to face Slovakia and the Ukraine unfortunately.

At the minute Kevin is on fire, he´s just behind Steven Gerrard as the highest scoring English player in the Premier league so he´s got a great claim of being involved for England. It´s just one of those things, it´s the manager´s decision who´s in and who isn’t and obviously Capello knows what he is doing!

Kevin´s got so many strengths - his work rate is unbelievable and he works his socks off for the team. This season he has got the highest goals tally of his career and he doesn’t mind doing the donkey work of the team as well. He has flourished as Bolton´s team captain and he´s having an outstanding season. It´s hard to compare him to [Carlton] Cole, [Peter] Crouch and [Emile] Heskey because they are all completely different types of forward and they threaten in different ways in front of goal. That’s exactly what Capello wants. I think they are all talented players and maybe the only reason Kevin didn’t get a look-in was because Capello wanted to have players with a bit more experience at international level.

Gary Cahill was also on the 28-man shortlist. I have known Gary for a very long time. We played at Aston Villa together and I have watched him grow up and develop as a player. He is very good and I have always rated him extremely highly. I don’t think there are many better at centre-half to be honest. We have a long line of talented English defenders in his position but his time will come and he has got time on his side.

As I said, we´ve got Middlesbrough up next. We beat them 3-1 at The Riverside earlier this season but they are under serious pressure now, their backs are against the wall and they are under pressure to win. We are at home so we are the team that needs to come out and play for the three points but it´s going to be a real scrap. We were there last year and I know how it feels. When you are down there, under threat of relegation, something clicks in your head and you know that you are fighting for your life. It´s going to be a hard game but we need to come out on top.