Chelsea’s Gary Cahill insists he has nothing left to prove to Antonio Conte or England manager Gareth Southgate

Gary Cahill says he is tired of having to repeatedly force his way back into the Chelsea team, and insists he has nothing left to prove to Antonio Conte or the England manager Gareth Southgate ahead of the World Cup.

The centre-back was left on the bench for Chelsea’s most high-profile league games over the past two months, against Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham – all of which Chelsea lost – as well as the EFL Cup semi-final against Arsenal and the Champions League last-16 tie with Barcelona, both of which also ended in defeat.

Asked how he deals with drifting in and out of the side, Cahill said: “It gets tiring after a bit if I’m honest. Maybe that’s just football, maybe that’s the way my path’s gone. It definitely brings back those nerves and thinking I’ve got to prove things to everybody, but I think I’ve [proved myself] before – playing in the Champions League, playing in the Premier League, playing for England – so it’s just a matter of enjoying what I’m doing and getting back to the level I expect.”

Southgate excluded Cahill in March from England’s final friendlies before picking his World Cup squad. The manager has long harboured doubts over the 32-year-old following his shaky performance alongside Chris Smalling in England’s 2-2 draw with Scotland in a qualifier last June. Smalling is also on the fringes, as Southgate prioritises younger players as part of a long-term approach.

Since Chelsea’s defeat at Spurs on 1 April, however, Cahill has come back into the fold at club level and performed well in the gentle test of Chelsea’s FA Cup semi-final victory over Southampton on Sunday. The defender believes he can still force his way into Southgate’s thinking by impressing in Chelsea’s final four Premier League games and the Cup final against Manchester United on 19 May.

“Of course it is [possible],” Cahill said of his chances of going to Russia. “Everything’s a possibility when you’re playing, hence why I’m happy to be back out there. Let’s see what happens at the end of the season. We’re into the final now, and the World Cup’s coming, so let’s wait and see.”

Some of Cahill’s performances have been strongly criticised this season, most notably in the consecutive heavy defeats by Bournemouth and Watford in February, but the defender believes in the adage that form is only temporary.

“Every time you come out the team you don’t just disappear, you don’t just turn into a bad player overnight. Form, if they let you ride it out, you come back to the levels you should be at. You can do as much running as you like but to get match sharp you need to be out there.

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“I realise that’s the situation for everybody, I realise the manager has decisions to make, I realise maybe I’m not getting any younger, but in a weird way I don’t really feel I need to prove anything. I’ve done it before time and time again so I’m just happy to be out there enjoying doing one of the best jobs in the world which is playing football.

“Football’s a bit of a rollercoaster, it’s not always going to go amazingly well. If you look over my career since I’ve started, the majority of the time I’ve played 30 plus games every season. Twice I haven’t, this season and the time we finished 10th. I enjoy playing regularly, I don’t like sitting on the bench. I think it would be worrying if anybody did.”