BLACKBURN striker Matt Jansen will know by Saturday evening whether his chances of playing for England in this summer's World Cup are over.

Jansen believes if he is not among the names which will be announced by coach Sven-Goran Eriksson for the friendly with Italy next Wednesday, then he will definitely not be on the plane bound for Japan come May.

As Blackburn are without a match this weekend, Jansen's last chance to impress was at least in front of Tord Grip at Leeds on Sunday.

England's assistant coach watched Jansen score his 14th goal of the season with a certain degree of composure and confidence, albeit in a 3-1 defeat for Rovers.

But after a slow start to the season for Jansen, he is now finding his feet in the Premiership, with his haul more than team-mate Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham, Emile Heskey, Kevin Phillips and Darius Vassell, while he is one adrift of Michael Ricketts.

The latter two names were both included in Eriksson's experimental squad for the last friendly against Holland in Amsterdam, while Jansen was again ignored.

But with Grip looking on at the weekend, there is the prospect Jansen might get his opportunity, and he sees no reason why that should not be the case as he said: "Another goal won't have done me any harm.

"The goals have been going in a little more frequently of late and hopefully that will continue. I've just got to keep going and you never know what could happen.

"When I see the likes of Michael Ricketts and Darius Vassell called up then I think I must have half a chance myself. I've not ruled it out.

"I know if I'm playing well enough then I'm sure I'll be included. If I'm not then I won't be, although I think Sven pretty much knows his squad anyway.

"If I'm not in it this Saturday then that will be it for me. If that's the case, then I've got to look forward to trying to break in in the future.

"But the main thing at the moment is to get Blackburn out of the position we're in."

Rovers remain two points above the bottom three following their defeat at Elland Road where they conceded two goals to Robbie Fowler in the opening eight minutes.

Although Jansen pulled one back just after the break, Harry Kewell's first goal for three months killed off Blackburn's hopes of snatching a point and left manager Graeme Souness in a foul mood.

The Worthington Cup winners might have secured a place in Europe next season, but their place in the Premiership is far from certain, although Jansen is convinced they will not go down.

"We thought we had turned a corner and that we would get something from the game with Leeds, but unfortunately we didn't," added Jansen.

"As we don't have a game this weekend we could be back in the bottom three by the end of it, but hopefully results will go for us. We will certainly know what we've got to do.

"Our next game is against Leicester, which is another big one for us and hopefully we can go there and show the form we had done prior to this defeat.

"But the ball is in our court."