Paul Scholes has accused "very selfish" players of ruining England's international chances by putting their own careers ahead of the national team.

Scholes quit the England set-up in 2004 aged just 29 and revealed: "I just got fed up. When you are going to a team, you want to be part of a team and play well, but there are individuals who are after personal glory.

"When there is a simple pass of 10 yards, they might try and smack it 80 yards. They will do things to try and get themselves noticed."

He went on: "I always felt players at clubs like your Aston Villas try to use England as a way to get to a top club. Which, I don't know, you feel, 'Are they there for the right reason?' I think they are very selfish people.

"That is the biggest problem with English players – most of them are too selfish."

The former Manchester United midfielder, who retired at the end of last season, also denied that being played out of position had been behind his decision to make himself unavailable for Sven-Goran Eriksson's England squad.

"Playing on the left was never a problem. I played on the left for United I don't know how many times. I probably had my most successful time scoring goals in that position so it was never a problem."

Scholes insisted that teamwork was the key to success at international level. "If you look at the Spain team now, they all seem to play for each other," he said. "There isn't one of them who would try to do something in a game that doesn't suit the team and the way they play. And that could happen over here."