England U21 boss Gareth Southgate regrets not taking Everton midfielder Ross Barkley to the Euros.

Barkley never played for Southgate – his last Under 21 cap came against Scotland in August 2013 – as it became accepted that he had become part of Roy Hodgson's plans.

Southgate said: "Ross is one we have got to think about. I still think it's not clear because he hadn't kicked a ball with me for 20 months. So to bring him into the group isn't something that would necessarily have worked.

"William Carvalho played in Under 21 qualifiers for Portugal, that's why he came back into their group. For his (Barkley's) development, would it have been something good for his experience? An Under 21 finals is a high quality field.

"The policy (of not picking star names) generally is something I'm comfortable with because we expose this next group now. Would we have seen a glimpse of Ruben Loftus-Cheek if we'd done that? Possibly not.

"Jesse Lingard has come through as a player that if he gets a pathway with a club, he's shown on a top stage what he might be able to do. Had we had Saido Berahino, Harry Kane and Danny Ings as 9 and 10, would we talking about Ross in the same way?"