Aston Villa striker Darren Bent is determined to fight his way into Roy Hodgson's England set-up in the hope of playing in his first major tournament.

The 28-year-old was left out of Hodgson's 23-man squad for the European Championship in the summer after being deemed unfit following a slow recovery from an ankle injury picked up in February. Bent knows he is running out of chances and is determined to avoid missing out on a fourth successive major competition. The Villa forward is ready to prove his worth in the Premier League this season as he eyes a trip to Brazil in 2014. He told The Telegraph:

"It's all about trying to get back in there now. There's not much else I can do, so hopefully he (Hodgson) is watching and keeping an eye on me. All you can do really is try to play so well that it's impossible to ignore you. It's reassuring to hear Roy Hodgson say he will be keeping track of me but I've always been a firm believer that if you do your stuff and play well for your club side, the England thing will hopefully follow. I wasn't picked for both World Cups, we didn't qualify for Euro 2008 and I was injured for this year so it's certainly been a bit of bad luck for me. The timing this year in particular was terrible. I'd played virtually all the qualifiers, started and scored in quite a few of them so to then get injured was a nightmare scenario for me. I've just got to keep playing well for Villa and go from there."