Tony Adams believes he has started the season in the best physical shape for several years but insisted that even the England captaincy would not delay his retirement when he knew the time was right.

Injuries have clouded Adams' playing career for the past few seasons but, at the age of 33, he maintains that he is up to the challenge of leading England as the successor to Alan Shearer as skipper.

And although Adams' view on life, as a recovering alcoholic, does not realistically allow him to look too far into the future, he is hopeful that he will at least make it through to the 2002 World Cup finals. I have got a good pre-season under my belt this year for the first time in a long time, so hopefully that will put me in good stead for the rest of the season, he declared.

I played 38 games last season, after a double hernia operation, at the age of 33 and I played 18 games in 1992, after a single hernia operation.

I was particularly pleased, but when you get to a certain age, I think people are looking at it and starting to ask questions about how long you are going on for.

My simple answer is always the same as long as I can, and as long as my performances are of a standard that I'm particularly proud of.

There are no question marks in his mind on either score at the moment, even if he acknowledges that the captaincy would not protect his place in the team. If my standards drop, I'm out of the door. I wouldn't play on if I didn't think I could do it, never mind being captain, he insisted.

Adams believes Glenn Hoddle should never have replaced him with Shearer a move made because the ex-England coach was worried about the centre-back's injury record.

His focus was simply on the prospect of taking on France, the current world and European champions, on Saturday and in regaining respect for the national side following their early elimination from the Euro 2000 finals.

Following four early withdrawals through injury, Kevin Keegan should at least be able to consider recalling Andy Cole to the side after the striker came through yesterday's training despite worries over an Achilles problem.

Steve McManaman also trained after suffering from flu the day before, but Kevin Phillips was still troubled by a sore shoulder and a decision will be made today on whether he should fly to Paris with the rest of the squad.