Manchester United's Gary Neville has his doubts over whether England can compete for next summer's World Cup with anything less than a complete squad of first-team players available.

Neville, 34, has England down as one of the second tier of teams who could potentially lift the Jules Rimet trophy if the likes of Spain, Brazil and Argentina, who are his favourites, fail to perform to their full potential.

The United skipper pointed to Fabio Capello's side's recent abject display, deprived of several first-team players, in their 1-0 defeat to Brazil, who simultaneously proved that they have the strength in depth to cope with an injury crisis.

"England's 1-0 defeat to Brazil showed that they are still a little behind the world's best," he told the Daily Mirror.

"What we saw against Brazil was that when quite a few big players are missing, England don't have enough strength in depth in terms of quality."

Neville is now resigned to missing out on next summer's party, and ironically was somewhat disparaging of himself in his criticism of England's squad players, as it is they who are keeping him out of Fabio Capello's plans.

The right-back, who has 85 England caps, did assert that with all of their top-players fully-fit, and performing consistently at the top of their game, the Three Lions could be the surprise package next summer.

"I think England can beat anyone when all their best players are fit and firing, but to repeat it every few days in a World Cup atmosphere is difficult.

"Although we now know all the qualifiers, it's absolutely impossible to say at this stage who will win the World Cup.

"I think the Spanish team look really good, Brazil generally always perform in World Cups and Argentina will do well. Then there is always a surprise team, so let's hope it is England," he concluded.