Wolves' Conor Coady catches eye of England boss Gareth Southgate

The 25-year-old has been touted as a future England international after a stellar season at centre-half for Nuno Espirito Santo’s team.

Coady played for England at youth level while still a Liverpool player.

And Southgate told the Express & Star that Coady – a player he knows well – certainly has the right mental characteristics to play for the full national team.

“All the signs this year have been really good for him,” Southgate said.

“The nice thing with all of these young players is that I know them. I met Conor a number of times before I was working with the under-21s.

“I was head of elite development and Conor was part of our junior teams and I remember when he was at Liverpool he won an award.

“His personality and his character is outstanding. He is certainly someone that, mentality-wise, fits into the way we like to work.

“The challenge now for him is to step up to the Premier League and to be able to continue to play as he has for Wolves this year at the next level.”

Coady’s team-mate Ruben Neves looks likely to be named in the Portugal squad for this summer’s World Cup in Russia.

However, Southgate suggested he would not pick a player from the Championship in his squad.

“I think there are different levels you have to keep knocking down as a player if you want to be selected to play for England,” he added.

“How do you perform week-in, week-out for your club is one. But then how do you perform against the top-six clubs and in big matches.

“It’s important to look at that because that is the level we have to perform. You have to look at mentality whether they can stand up and perform in those games as well as physically.

“In the Championship, you are not quite getting the same test every week.

“The speed of the game is different, the athleticism is different. The technical level is just a little bit below compared to the top half of the Premier League.”