The England manager Gareth Southgate has spelled out the challenge now facing Jack Grealish if the rejuvenated Aston Villa playmaker wants to make his England senior debut: he needs to be playing in the Premier League.

Grealish, 23, made the switch from Republic of Ireland to England in 2015 and represented the England Under-21s for whom he is no longer age-eligible. He is yet to make his senior debut and has seen others overtake him, including another former Ireland international, Declan Rice, 20, who made his senior debut in the 5-0 win over the Czech Republic in the Euro 2002 qualifier at Wembley on Friday night.

In that game Southgate also gave a debut from the bench to Callum Hudson-Odoi and his fellow 18-year-old Jadon Sancho made his first competitive start. It was the first time in 138 years that an England team featured two 18-year-olds and further evidence of Southgate’s willingness to look beyond club form. Hudson-Odoi is still yet to start a Premier League game for his club Chelsea. England take on Montenegro in Podgorica tomorrow (Monday) night.

Although Southgate admitted that he had to “creative” in selecting players from an ever more shallow pool of English talent in the Premier League he said that Grealish would always have the disadvantage of playing at a lower level. A former Villa player himself, Southgate joked that he hoped that could be solved soon with the club getting promoted.