STEVEN GERRARD believes the 2010 World Cup could be his last chance to win football’s most coveted prize.

The Liverpool captain will be 30 by the time Fabio Capello’s side compete in South Africa next summer – assuming there are no last-gasp hiccups in their qualifying group.

Gerrard conceded that he may be past his prime by the time of the 2014 finals.

And he will use that thought as a driving force for the double header with Kazakhstan away on Saturday and the home meeting with Andorra on June 10.

England already top their group and two more victories will put them on the verge of going through to the finals.

Gerrard said: ‘‘Will this be the last chance to qualify for a World Cup? I would say so.

If we qualify, I’ll be 30 when the finals come around.

‘‘For me, it will be the last chance of doing well at a World Cup. Maybe by the time of the next one I might not be in my prime. That is a big motivation for me.

‘‘We’ve now got these two important qualifiers coming up and if we want to play in the finals, we’ve got to get two good results.

‘‘When we met up with the manager he said basically he wants the two wins to put us in the driving seat in the group. If we win these two games, we may possibly only need three more points.

‘‘Of course, we know it will be warm in Kazakhstan and any international away from home is very difficult but there will be no excuses on our part.

‘‘We should win these two games comfortably and put ourselves on the brink of going through.’’ Gerrard feels Liverpool are closing the gap on Manchester United adding: ‘‘For me the big challenge is to look forward and try and make sure there will be trophies in 12 months’ time.”