Ashley Cole has warned England to beware the wounded pride of Kanu when they clash with Nigeria in Wednesday's World Cup battle.

Kanu has been recovering from a stomach injury which meant he was only introduced as a late substitute in his country's 2-1 defeat by Sweden.

Cole believes it is another kind of hurt - that of Nigeria having already been eliminated from the competition - which England will have to be aware of from his Arsenal team-mate.

England meet Nigeria at Osaka, Japan, on Wednesday as they look to secure their place in the second phase of the competition.

But left-back Cole is confident England can maintain their interest in the competition if they repeat the kind of performance shown in the single goal success over Argentina in the Sapporo Dome.

Cole said: "Nigeria have got pride at stake now after going out of the World Cup and I know that will be true of Kanu. I know him well from Arsenal and I know he is not a loser and he doesn't like losing.

"You can be sure that he will be rallying his team on Wednesday to try and get a result against England and at least go home on a positive note.

"But we have to try and play like we did against Argentina and then hopefully we will go through to the next round. That game showed how good the players are.

"In this World Cup we have seen that every game is tough but if we just concentrate on how we perform then I don't see why we should worry about anyone else. If we have to come second in the group to go through, then it wouldn't matter.

"It's just as long as we do make it through and there are no slip-ups."

Cole admits Friday's win against the Argentinians was extra special to him as less than two years ago he was still a virtual unknown outside of Highbury. He is full of praise for the way coach Sven-Goran Eriksson helped to give England the belief to avenge their 1998 reversal in the finals after the second- half fade-out against Sweden.

Cole said: "It is hard to believe all this is happening. Two years ago I was a no one, a reserve-team player and now to be part of a team which has just beaten Argentina is amazing.

"I also played in the 5-1 win in Germany which was a great day for me but I think the Argentinian game just edged that with it being in the actual finals. That makes it a bit special.

"There was a lot of pressure on the game and everyone was saying we're not going to do it but we proved a lot of people wrong."