England U21 boss Stuart Pearce is tipping Aston Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor to follow teammate Ashley Young into the senior squad.

Agbonlahor almost wrecked his international future after dropping out of Pearce's squad for the summer's U21 European Championships, but the coach now says: "He's started the season on fire with us and his club.

"He has to maintain that and I feel he has the capacity to improve. They [the seniors] have got a couple of tight qualifiers. The next international game is only four weeks away then we go into a long break until February. There might be a situation where players step up and step back down again. It happens with other countries and there is no reason why it can't happen here. Steven Taylor did it a couple of months ago."