FIFA World Cup 2014: Hodgson Claims Suarez is Still not 'World Class'

England manager Roy Hodgson believes that Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez still needs to prove himself in order to belong to the "world class" category alongside the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Despite being seen in training with the rest of his international, Suarez, who had to undergo a keyhole surgery after sustaining an injury in his left knee, is still a doubt for Uruguay's important clash against England on Sunday.

The Liverpool striker, who was only able to watch from the sidelines as his side suffered a humiliating 1-3 defeat against Group D underdogs Costa Rica, had been in terrific form last season, scooping many individual awards in England after scoring 31 goals from 32 appearances in the Premier League.

Despite admitting that Suarez has potential, Hodgson feels that the Uruguayan striker will only be included in the list of great players if he manages to shine in the 2014 World Cup.

"I think he will only be at that level when he shows it on this particular stage [World Cup].He has got the potential. He is a wonderful footballer," said Hodgson.

"But if you are really going to put him up there with (Diego) Maradona, Pele, (Franz) Beckenbauer and (Johan) Cruyff, and (Andrea) Pirlo, this is the stage you have got to do it on really. You can be a great player in your league but for the world to recognise you are one of the all-time greats you have got to do it at the World Cup."

Meanwhile England captain Steven Gerrard revealed that Suarez has stopped texting his Liverpool teammates in the England squad.

Earlier the Uruguayan had sent some texts to his fellow Liverpool players, saying that he was confident of facing England in the World Cup.

However, Gerrard claims that Suarez has become very quiet in the last couple of days.

"I'm not sure where Suarez is up to injury-wise but I expect him to play some part because he's been so quiet," said Gerrard.

Gerrard, who expects to see Suarez feature in the game, is confident that they will cause some "big problems" for Uruguay if they continue playing the way they did against Italy.

"I expect him to be involved in some capacity so they have really good firepower up front but we've seen against Costa Rica they are certainly beatable. They concede goals and if we attack like we did against Italy we will cause Uruguay big, big problems," he added.