Gareth Southgate has said Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling possesses all the attributes to be an England captain after promoting him to the 'leadership group' within the national squad.
The group is designed to be a players’ committee to represent the whole squad and also contains Harry Kane, Jordan Henderson, Eric Dier and Fabian Delph.
Ashley Young was part of that clutch of players during the World Cup but he hasn't been named in a squad by Southgate since the tournament.
"Youngy dropped out, so Sterling came in," Southgate said ahead of England’s game against Montenegro on Monday night.
"In between November and March, observing his (Sterling's) maturity and influence, I felt that would be a good step for him.
"I think when you speak to other young players, he’s one of the first they speak about making them feel really comfortable in the environment. That was a really important move for him.
"We’ve had three or four players captaining the team, and Raheem is developing lots of the qualities those guys have. He has those qualities.
"It’s difficult to talk about a potential captain when the captain, Harry Kane, is in the hotel waiting to go out for dinner, but in terms of his personal qualities, he’s shown some outstanding personal qualities."
Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson is a rival for Sterling at club level but he sung the 24-year-old's praises after his hat-trick at Wembley on Friday night.
“He wants to play at the top. He wants to improve, be the best player in the world,” Henderson said. “That will be one of his aims in the future. For me, he’s going in the right direction. We all know how good a player he is, and he has the right mentality to keep wanting more and stay hungry.
“We knew he had something special at Liverpool. You could see how good he was, he had the right mentality. He’s a great lad as well, a great character to have in the team. I feel as though he’s more of a leader now in the England team.”
