Barry ready for England return

Gareth Barry insists he will be "spot on" in terms of fitness for England's World Cup clash with Algeria on Friday night. The midfielder revealed his ankle - injured when playing for Manchester City against Tottenham in early May - is fully recovered. Barry is confident another week's training before the encounter in Cape Town will leave him 100% ready should he be required by Fabio Capello. He told BBC Sport: "The ankle has been fine for 10 days. Another week's training in the lead-up to the Algeria game and I should be spot on. "If the manager had asked me if I was ready to play against the United States at the weekend, I would have bitten his hand off to try and make the starting team. "I was desperate for us to go two or three goals up and then he might have thrown me on!" That desperation is borne out of the fact Barry is involved in his first World Cup after being overlooked for 2002 and 2006 by Sven-Goran Eriksson. He said: "It has felt like the World Cup was never going to come for me. "Midway through the Sven-Goran Eriksson era, my England career and the World Cup looked miles away. "When the injury came, it felt like it was one of those things, that it (the World Cup) was not going to happen. But it was important I never stopped believing." Barry even slept in an oxygen tent to try to win his fitness fight. He said: ""We had a few hot days in England and the tent was tough to sleep in with the heat. "Every morning they were booking me into an oxygen chamber for an hour and a half, getting that in the lungs. They say that speeds up the process of healing. "All these things and the treatment they gave me probably got me ahead of where I should have been. "But it was always touch and go whether I could make the squad." Barry added: "I hadn't spoken to anybody from the management staff here. "Reports you read in the paper, you never know how true they are. "In some quarters they were were writing me off as though they knew more than I did. I was nervous waiting for a phone call. "Eventually Franco Baldini (general manager) called me and wanted to hear from me how I felt and if I really felt I had a good chance. "Probably even if I didn't, I'd have still told him I did. "I tried to be up front and tell him how it was and at that stage I was confident. "It was a really tough few weeks sitting at home every day, and I couldn't do much. Eventually I was happy to make it."