John Stones hailed England star Phil Foden as “the best player he has seen at his age” as the Manchester City forward battles for his place against Senegal at the World Cup.
Gareth Southgate could decide to keep Foden in his starting line-up but has an embarrassment of riches in attack, with all of Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling, Bukayo Saka and Jack Grealish to choose from.
The Three Lions face Senegal on Sunday with each of their wide forwards getting on the scoresheet in the three Group B games.
Stones, who has started all of England’s games so far, believes his club teammate is well worthy of future appearances.
“I had never seen anyone like Phil, anyone at that age, with his ability, his football knowledge, his freedom in how he plays and how he expresses himself and the ability that he’s got is frightening,” Stones said.
“I’m a huge fan of Phil. Lucky to get to play with him pretty much every day and I look forward to what he can do and love playing with him.
“I’m extremely lucky, City are extremely lucky, England as well that we’ve got someone like that and I want to help through whatever it might be and make sure he gets what he needs on and off the pitch that allows him to go and play like he did the other night.”
England came into the World Cup after a bad run of form in the Nations League but had finished fourth, third and second in their last three international tournaments beforehand.
Stones has been involved in each previous campaign and has urged supporters to stay positive about their side’s chances to go all the way.
“I have always said that we are in the competition to win it,” he added. “That’s my belief as well. I am not being overconfident.
“That’s being humble enough to see what’s going on in our training and how we prepare for everything. It is about believing in ourselves as well.
“I think sometimes we can be quite negative and too negative about things. We need to be more positive and start thinking about all the things we’ve done, what led us to this point and why we are here.
“We need to be positive about our ambitions and where this competition can take us.”
