IN Wayne Rooney, Emile Heskey and Jermaine Defoe, Fabio Capello has clearly made up his mind on three of his strikers for next summer's World Cup finals.

So if you are Darren Bent, you would have to hope that Capello opts to take five strikers to South Africa, otherwise his international recall could raise his hopes for nothing.

Bent's eight goals from 12 matches since his £10m move to Sunderland in the summer has clearly been noticed by the England boss.

But while he may have been given a place in the 23-man squad that faces Brazil in Qatar this Saturday, Capello will still have major reservations about his selection.

Bent is in an extremely tough position. No matter how many goals he scores between now and the end of the season, he will always be behind Defoe and Rooney.

And, like it or not, those are the two places he is competing for, with Carlton Cole and Peter Crouch competing for the role of Heskey's deputy.

At this stage it is difficult to see Capello going for anyone other than Crouch to fill his fourth and final spot as a striker.

On this occasion Crouch was a certainty, with Bent offered the opportunity to come in and prove to Capello that he was wrong to overlook him for the best part of eight months.

In reality it would seem his opportunity has only arrived because Heskey and Cole have been ruled. Now, though, it is down to Bent to show to Capello that he deserves his big chance, ahead of Gabriel Agbonlahor and Michael Owen.

The whole of Wearside is behind him, in fact the North-East should be if we want a player from one of the region's clubs representing England next summer. He appears to be our only hope.

But it is difficult to imagine that anything other than a hat-trick against Brazil will lead to him working his way ahead of his competition.

Personally I would rather take a target-man than a goalscorer as the fourth striker, basically because I don't trust Heskey to perform consistently and he could do with the back-up in South Africa.

But if Bent plays well against Brazil, he will then be in Capello's thinking for the second and final friendly before he names his provisional World Cup squad next year.

That is all he can hope for, for now. After that, his hope has to be for either injuries or that Capello opts to take striker number five to the World Cup.

** Which strikers would you take to the World Cup? **