Crystal Palace defender Gary Cahill does not believe that he is on the verge of retirement.

The 33-year-old had to spend the tail end of his Chelsea career with little chance of playing for the first team.

But he does not think that he is anywhere close to calling time on what has been an illustrious career.

"There's many years left in me yet," Cahill told reporters.

"Over the last seven or eight years I think I averaged around 50 games a season.

"After not playing that much last season, I never want to have a season like that again. But, on the flip side, I trained hard and got the chance to recover my body before pre-season even though I ended up missing it. I was ready to play when the season started.

"Hopefully I can keep it going and help the team to play well. My body is where I expect it to be at my age.

"The 2016/17 season when I won the title with Chelsea under Antonio Conte, playing as part of a back three, I felt terrific and was able to cover a lot of mileage but I know where I need my body to be in order to perform and I'm achieving that at the moment."