Gareth Southgate admits he will continue to think about his decision to opt away from calling up a number of key names to his England U21 squad.

The Young Lions crashed out of the UEFA U21 European Championships at the hands of Italy in the form of a 3-1 defeat in the Czech Republic on Wednesday.

Prior to the tournament, Southgate made it clear that he would remain with the players who gained his team qualification but their bottom-placed finish in Group B suggests he may have got it wrong.

One of those Southgate could have selected was Everton midfielder Ross Barkley and the England boss has acknowledged the fact there may have been an oversight.

"Ross is one we have got to think about," said Southgate.

"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.

"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?

"But it's absolutely a fair question and one we have to constantly review."