Sol Campbell has rubbished speculation that he was ready to quit international football after his spats with England's Football Association over his disciplinary record.
The Arsenal central defender also insisted: “I want to play forever for England.”
Campbell was reported to be considering hanging up his boots at the highest level after a series of on-the-pitch incidents which have led to action being taken by Soho Square.
He was particularly incensed that he was not allowed to seek a personal hearing to contest his sending-off for a challenge on Manchester United’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the end of last season – with a four-match ban ruling him out of the FA Cup final.
Now Campbell is awaiting a hearing to contest being charged with misconduct by the FA over his clash with United’s Eric Djemba-Djemba in the Community Shield last month.
But, although Campbell conceded that he had held talks with Sven-Goran Eriksson and new FA chief executive Mark Palios during the build-up to the August friendly with Croatia, he is adamant that giving up his England place was never an option.
Campbell said: “I’ve got to set the record straight about this. Other people have said I’m not going to turn up or pack in playing for England. I’ve never said that. It has never come from my mouth.
“I’ve actually got a DVD coming out explaining all those sort of things but I want to play forever for England.
“I’ve had a meeting with the coach (Eriksson) and the FA chief executive (Palios) over disciplinary issues. That is true.
“I was cut up at the back end of last season because I didn’t have the right to kind of appeal (over the Solskjaer incident) so I accepted it.
“Over the summer it was done and dusted and then there is the situation with the Charity Shield which is hovering around still.
“We just had a conversation, cleared the air and we’ve gone on from there - and here I am. I don’t know when that (the personal hearing over the Community Shield incident) is going to be resolved.
“I’ve just got to play games, play football, let the other people deal with that situation and what will be, will be. It’s out of my control now
“I’ve moved on. You have to move on. I want to play football for my club, my country and I want to win trophies and I want to win European Cups.
“But I’ve never said that I wanted to quit England. It is just other people saying that and, like I said, here I am.”
Campbell insisted that he has also been in the right frame of mind for the current campaign despite his obvious dissatisfaction with matters relating to discipline.
He said: “I got sent off in the first game of the season against Everton and obviously people are going to say things.
“But against Middlesbrough the following Saturday and then against Aston Villa I thought I was bang on with the way I played.”
Campbell held his hand up and admitted responsibility for the opening goal conceded to Macedonia in Saturday’s Euro qualifier before England hit back to claim a 2-1 success.
He said: “It was disappointing because it was going so well before that. I was feeling comfortable. The ball came over and it was a misjudgement really by me.
“The ball was bouncing and the pitch was not really true but at the end of the day you’ve got to deal with those kind of situations.
“We didn’t want that but we came back well. Macedonia are no mugs. They came close to beating Turkey twice.
“We dug in, showed a great spirit and it has set us up for Wednesday (against Liechtenstein) and the Turkey game next month.”