England v Germany: Roy Hodgson given boost as striker Daniel Sturridge declares himself fit for Wembley friendly It's important for me to be fit and to play for England, it's an opportunity that I'm relishing. If can remain fit, that's what's important for me, to be putting on the England shirt and playing. It's not a serious injury so I'm hopeful that it doesn't continue to linger on. I've been playing with it for the past couple of games and it's been hindering my performance. But I had a scan and I'm ready to go, I'm delighted the pain's not too bad and I'm looking forward to it. Friendly or not, an assignment against Germany is one which English football always looks forward to - and with only March's game against Denmark to follow before the World Cup squad announcement, Sturridge was quick to stress the importance of the occasion. "For every individual to play against a country that plays great football, they've got world-class players, it's going to be a great occasion for the fans and the players to enjoy," he said. There are two games now before the manager selects his squad and it's important that everybody stakes their claim, that nobody's taking it for granted. It's important to just play well at your club and that when the opportunities come to play for England, you take them and try to stake your claim to go to the World Cup. God willing I will remain fit and then I'm sure the opportunities will be there and I'll be able to take them. While the Chile result came as a surprise and a disappointment to most English observers, Sturridge felt the South American side had been underestimated. He said: "We knew it would be difficult, they pass the ball and they've got very good individuals. I think they won the same number of games as Argentina in the qualification so they're a very good side. We'll have a look at the videos and reflect on what we could have done better. The same could be said of England's World Cup qualifying group, after they had to battle through on the final day in a group which looked relatively easy on paper. Euro 2012 co-hosts Ukraine and Poland represented the most established tests, though runners-up Ukraine have since put things into context by winning 2-0 in the first leg of their play-off against France. "A lot of teams now are underestimated," said Sturridge. They may not be the big names of old but everybody's playing good football now. The group was difficult for us, we finished on top and we're going to the World Cup and everybody's delighted with that. We're moving on from that now, we're looking forward to actually being there and hopefully performing well.