Joe Cole believes his World Cup place shouldn't be under threat if England coach Fabio Capello consults Chelsea's medical records.

"We've done the fitness tests... and I'm the fittest player in the squad," Cole said on Thursday at Chelsea's Cobham training ground.

"So I'm fresh and hungry and want to get out there to the World Cup."

On Tuesday morning, Cole's hopes of going to South Africa appeared to be over when he woke up to newspaper headlines asserting that he hadn't been included in the 30-man provisional squad.

Poor season

But even after a text message arrived on his phone from a Football Association secretary telling him he had made the World Cup squad, the 28-year-old midfielder had done little this season to justify a return to the England fold.

Cole struggled to force his way into the Chelsea team after returning in September from an eight-month layoff with a knee injury.

When he finally made it onto the pitch for the Blues, Capello wasn't impressed with what he saw and demanded he "improves a lot" in the final weeks of the season.

"He is not back like the player I remember," Capello said in February.

But in the final weeks of the season, Cole managed to reproduce some of the flashes of brilliance that made him stand out as one of England's few star performers at the 2006 World Cup.