England U20 coach Keith Downing feels more his youngsters should follow Jadon Sancho abroad.

Borussia Dortmund signed Sancho from Manchester City's academy on deadline day, while Arsenal lost top prospect Chris Willock to Benfica this summer and West Ham's Reece Oxford leads a new raft of English youngsters on loan on foreign shores.

"It's interesting to speak to them about how they're coping as adults, moving over to different countries; different languages," Downing told the Daily Mail. "I think it's really useful.

"It gives them a great maturity when they come back here and play in England. You can see them growing up quite a bit even from a couple of months ago.

"It can only benefit them because they're playing with top players, in a different culture and different philosophies over there.

"These boys are having to find different pathways, Chris is at Benfica, Isaac Buckley-Ricketts is at Twente (on loan from Manchester City), Kaylen Hinds is at Wolfsburg.

"So it's not just about playing in this country, they're finding themselves playing over in European football and obviously that's going to benefit them."