Carlton Cole has spiced up the race for a place among Fabio Capello's World Cup strikers by insisting there is more to his game than just goals.

Sunderland's Darren Bent has hit 23 goals this season while Bobby Zamora has had an outstanding campaign with 19, including six en route to the Europe League semi-finals.

While Wayne Rooney is certain to go to the World Cup, and Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch are expected to join him, doubts remain as to the identities of the other front men also set to board the plane.

Match of the Day pundit Martin Keown insisted on Saturday night that Bent's 23 goals this season stand him in better stead that Cole, with his nine goals and two assists.

But Cole believes the selfless work he does outside the box will aid his cause come the end of the season.

The West Ham striker, who set up Ilan's winner against Sunderland on Saturday, said: "I took a lot of pleasure out of setting up that goal. That's what I was known for. That was my main thing.

"Then I started scoring goals and everyone was labelling me as a goalscorer. I don't see myself as either really, I see myself as just playing the game and trying to help the team.

"I've always been a team player and I am just so happy that I contributed on Saturday, and at Everton, to a good team performance.

"The goals will come but the situation I am in right now, I know goals would help the team, but first and foremost you've got to work hard to get your goals."

Cole's fine mid-season form, in which he scored against Manchester City, Arsenal and Sunderland, has been hampered by a persistent knee injury. He has now gone eight Premier League games without a goal for Gianfranco Zola's struggling side.

He added: "I've got to start again from base because I had a bad injury, came back and tried hard, but it wasn't working out. So I have just got to graft and get my fitness back to where it is supposed to be.

"I've got to start again. The injury came at a bad time. You have to re-set. I took two months out, I had to re-set my button and now I can start blossoming and start concentrating on my goals.

"But first and foremost the team needs to stay up. There's more to my football right now than goals because I need to help the team progress."