Jermain Defoe has not given up England dream

Toronto striker Jermain Defoe still hopes to play for England again.

The 32-year-old, who scored 19 goals in 55 caps, has not played for England since his February move to the Major League Soccer from Tottenham and missed out on the World Cup.

"I would never rule myself out of playing for my country," he told BBC World Focus.

"There's no better feeling than scoring goals for your country. To get that feeling again would be special."

He added: "I've always said as a player to get into any international squad is based on merit, you've got to playing well for your club and that's all you can do."

The MLS season is now over and Defoe, who has suffered from groin injuries, says he has yet to decide whether to join an English club in January - with QPR said to be interested.

"I've been playing 15 months without a rest so I think that's probably the key factor in me getting injuries," he said.

"My season started last July with pre-season training for Tottenham. I need to shut down and rest my legs. And then we'll take it from there. We'll see what happens when I go home."

In March Defoe said he was hopeful of still playing at the World Cup, despite playing in North America.

But he now admits it "wasn't meant to be".

"Maybe the manager thought the Premier League is probably the best league in the world, so the players doing well there deserved to go to the World Cup.

"All I wanted to do is play in a World Cup. Having played in one before, to get that buzz is hard to put in words. I came in March and I thought maybe I'd done enough to deserve to be on the plane."