He said: "Jermain has done wonderfully well. He has scored and made a lot of important goals for us this season. It was a scrappy game against Birmingham last week but who made the first goal? Defoe."
Defoe is English, Robbie Keane is Irish – only one can go to the World Cup this summer, so in the tournament build-up it's only natural that people will be scrutinising every move Defoe makes.
Jol added: "I have three strikers and they have scored 30 goals between them and that for me is the important statistic. Somebody said to me he could lack rhythm, but Jermain has played in four out of the last six matches. He has been involved in 30 matches. Robbie Keane has also been involved in 30 matches. As a matter of fact, Jermain has played more minutes than Keane."
Source: Official site