Goalkeeper Matt Murray still believes he can be England’s No 1 – and end his career as first-choice at Wolves.

The 28-year-old one-time national hopeful is nearing full fitness again, after 11 months out with a ruptured patella tendon.

Murray is set to challenge Molineux’s two senior keepers Wayne Hennessey and Marcus Hahnemann, as Carl Ikeme prepares to be sent out on loan.

But with no dominant force emerging to succeed first-choice David James, the former England under-21 international also dares to look at the biggest stage that his talent could take him and knows beyond the 39-year-old, there is no nailed-on No 1 for Fabio Capello.

After receiving encouraging noises from within the England coaching set-up before, Murray believes he could still force his way back in if he proves his fitness.

He said: “I would still love to play for England. But my short term goal is to play league football again.

“If I could get back into the Wolves team with the goalkeepers we’ve got, with the national situation the way it is and with us in the Premier League, that could be a reality.

“Ray Clemence (former England goalkeeping coach) said some nice things about me and there have been telephone calls I’ve had too, and there’s still no one who’s really been able to take over.

“It hasn’t quite worked out for Ben Foster yet, but I think he’s good enough and he’s the best out there at the moment.”

But for now, Murray is concentrating on getting some match action with Wolves.

He said: “Ideally I’d love to play some league football then come back and fight for my place again.

“It’s going to be tough to get my place back, but I’ve got another year on my contract here and I’d love to earn another one.

“If I could finish my career here, I would love that. I’ve chatted with the manager and he said I need to get games, so if I can get a few reserve matches here and get some games in the January window, I’d love to play some first team football here.”

Murray has suffered a horrendous run of serious injuries but revealed his inspiration – a first-year scholar called James Parsonage.

He said: “There’s always someone worse off than yourself and James has done his cruciate, his cartilage and dislocated his kneecap.”