Michael Owen has heaped praise upon young centre-back John Stones, claiming that he is the only member of the England squad that could 'walk into the Barcelona lineup'.
The 22-year-old has caught the eye of big clubs such as Barca and Chelsea in recent transfer windows but endured a poor season domestically as his Everton side limped to an 11th-place finish last term.
Stones has been included in Roy Hodgson's 23-man squad travelling to Euro 2016, and former England striker Owen has urged the public to "get behind him" at the tournament in France.
"He's probably the only player in the England squad who could walk into Barcelona's team at the moment. He's absolutely brilliant. Get behind him, believe in him," Owen told BBC Sport.
"Some of the negativity surrounding Stones was because he is so much better than most other players. People just don't realise that a lot of it is under control. He will make the odd mistake but so will everyone - everyone just goes on and on and on about mistakes. Eventually someone might start getting into his head and he might not be the player he should because of this negativity that surrounds our country so often."
Stones spent the game on the bench on Thursday night as England claimed a narrow win over Portugal.
Neil Wilkes
