Spain's Xabi Alonso dismisses retirement rumour

Xabi Alonso has denied that he is set to retire from international football and says he is still deciding on his future with World Cup flops Spain.

The Real Madrid midfielder grabbed the headlines after Spain's 2-0 defeat to Chile by declaring that the world champions lacked 'hunger' and 'ambition'.

Reports later emerged that the 32-year-old was to call time on an illustrious 11-year international career with Spain, in which he has won two European Championships and one World Cup, but Alonso insisted he had not made any decision.

He told Spanish radio station Onda Cero: 'I'm still not at that moment, I want all this to end as soon as possible, go on holiday, disconnect a little and then decide things with time. Right now is not the time.'

The former Liverpool midfielder refused to be drawn on suggestions that his team-mates were irked by his comments that the team lacked hunger, and insisted the atmosphere among the squad in Brazil was similar to during the glorious Euro 2012 campaign.

'I'm not going to say what's happening in the dressing room, for me that should stay there,' he said.

'The atmosphere and feeling in the dressing room is the same as it was two years ago. It's all very natural, there isn't the tension that you (the media) imagine there is.'