AS Fabio Capello’s men walk out at Wembley this evening with their eyes firmly on South Africa 2010, Rovers’ Stephen Warnock will allow himself a quick envious glance in their direction.

You won’t find the former Liverpool man fuelled by bitterness at his latest rejection though, just a steely resolve to wait for as long as it takes to remove his name from that infamous list of England one-cap wonders.

Michael Ricketts, Francis Jeffers and Chris Sutton are just three of a line of England debutants who were lost in the international abyss, not to mention Rovers’ team-mate David Dunn, but Warnock has already proved patience can pay off.

Called up first by his country back in August 2005 by Sven Goran Eriksson for World Cup qualifiers against Wales and Northern Ireland, Warnock was made to wait three more years for his next call-up and first England cap.

His five-minute substitute cameo against Trinidad and Tobago in May saw him finally graduate to fully-fledged international status, despite a mix-up over his cap, and left him hungry for more – however long it takes.

Warnock insists though he will never ‘expect’ a place among England’s elite and, as England prepare for clashes with Kazakhstan and Belarus, admits he may have another wait on his hands to double his tally.

He said: “I think you do wonder when the squad is announced. You sort of wonder what will happen and whether you will be in or not.

“When you have had a little taste of it you want it again but I understand there are a lot of quality players in the squad.

“I am never going to be disappointed because I don’t expect to be in it. I would be more disappointed if I expected to be in it.

“When there are such good players you can’t expect to be in a good squad like that.

“Playing for your country is a fantastic honour and something that will always be in my mind but playing for Blackburn is my job and the rest comes on top of that.”

After being left on the sidelines during his first taste of international football more than three years ago now, Warnock could have been forgiven for giving up on his England dreams during a following lengthy exile.

He kept believing though and, after impressive performances at Ewood Park last season, was handed the chance he had been waiting for.

“That is the way it has been for me,” he said. “I had that long break but like I say it boils down to the same thing. You expect to have the quality players in the squad.

“Sometimes it takes an injury to get in or around the squad or a new manager to come in and take a look at new players or something like that. You have to be prepared to wait.

“I think in the summer that is what he did. He took a look at a lot of players who had done well in the league and wanted to have a good look at them in the summer.

“If he decides I am not good enough to be there then that is fine, that is not my problem because I can’t do anything about that.

“It is a case of playing well for Blackburn and the rest looks after itself. You can’t do anything else about it can you really?”

The 26-year-old’s hopes of being involved in Capello’s latest England squad have undoubtedly been hit by being moved from left back to centre midfield at Ewood in recent weeks – but you won’t find him complaining though.

“Possibly me playing central midfield has played a part in me not getting in the squad but that does not bother me,” he said.

“I am paid to do a job here and if the manager tells me to play centre-mid, I am playing centre-mid.

“If he tells me I am playing somewhere else, I am playing there.

“It was brilliant to play for England, it was an honour and a dream come true but I just want to add to that and hopefully this season will allow me to do that.”