Gareth Southgate heaped praise on Sunderland's Jermain Defoe after he was called into the England squad.

The 34-year-old striker is back in the Three Lions setup for the first time since 2013 having scored 14 Premier League goals for the Black Cats.

Defoe was called up by Southgate for the March 22 friendly with Germany in Dortmund and the World Cup qualifier against Lithuania at Wembley four days later.

"Year after year he is phenomenal but particularly this season in a team that perhaps aren't creating as many chances as other teams," Southgate said.

"His strike rate is outstanding so I didn't want to just look at his age and think 'he is finished with England'.

"He is somebody that is immensely proud to have represented England at every age group.

"I think you get young players with a point to prove and older players with a point to prove. I think he still feels that.

"He warrants the call-up. I have to look at getting results short, medium and long-term. With this squad, we are definitely nodding towards the future with some of the decisions that we are making.

"But also you need senior players around that to educate some of the younger ones to show them some of the things they need to learn and also the competition is important."