England Under 21 manager Gareth Southgate has praised Luke Shaw for accepting a call up to the youth national side, saying that the player has displayed hunger in doing so, as reported by the Daily Star.
The Manchester United youngster has been included in Southgate’s squad for the Euro 2015 play off games against Croatia at Molineux next week.
The call up came after Roy Hodgson left the left back out of the senior squad for the games against San Marino and Estonia, with Southgate taking advantage of the former Southampton pair to improve his squad for the crucial games.
Southgate said: “We feel that if we’re going to be successful at senior level we need players with the humility to step down.
“Luke Shaw [has] done this and when we spoke to [him, his] reaction was great and that’s really encouraging.
“We need to get away from the perception that playing for the Under 21s is a backwards step. It’s actually a development opportunity.”
Shaw has had a difficult start to his career with new side Man Utd since his summer moves.
The Man Utd left back has been used sparingly, with doubts over his fitness.
This despite the club spending a British record fee for a teenager, with the Old Trafford side having spent £27 million to sign him from Southampton.
He has also struggled to displace fellow new signing Marcos Rojo from the berth on the left hand side.
Shaw has, however, started in Man Utd’s last two games.