Terry's spot-kick would have won Europe's top club trophy two seasons ago and he rates the slip in Moscow as one of the lowest moments of his career - but he would still step up for his country if required.

The 28-year-old, speaking at an event organised by England team sponsors Nationwide Building Society, said: "Of course I would volunteer, no doubt.

"Okay I stepped up and missed one for Chelsea in a massive tournament but at the same time I'm not going to shirk away from any challenges thrown at me in my career. I want to step up to the plate and if that means taking a penalty I will do. We went out (of the World Cup) on penalties in 2006 and we don't want the same again."

Terry is hoping for a similar moment to Stuart Pearce - who missed from 12 yards in the 1990 World Cup but erased the memory with penalties at Euro 96.

"That's what you want to do and you want to wait for the right time," he said. "At Chelsea there were players ahead of me in the Community Shield so I wasn't in the mix that time and it hasn't happened yet. But on another day who knows - it's down to the manager. I will certainly put my hand up.

"We'll wait and see if it happens because Lamps (Frank Lampard) is first choice and we've got Stevie Gerrard and Wazza (Wayne Rooney) too. There's probably five players well in front of me so I think I'd be out of the first five. But I'd certainly put myself forward, I've got no reason not to."

After thrashing Croatia and qualifying for the finals in style, part of Terry's job now is to deal with the inevitable hype surrounding England.

"If we do go on to win it, and don't forget there are still an awful lot of improvements to be made, I think the whole nation will probably come to a standstill for three or four days," he admitted.

"But I haven't dreamt about it yet because we've only just qualified. We have to realise there are still improvements to make as individuals and as a collective - the manager has made that clear. We have a chance to work on those things in the next few games and we'll do that.

"But having said that we've all experienced the bad times together and it's important we enjoy the good times now. We would love to emulate what the 1966 boys have done but there's a long way to go."

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