​Rafael Benitez has back Jonjo Shelvey for an England recall if he continues his impressive start to the season at Newcastle.





​The Spanish manager fielded questions from the press ahead of his side's Championship match against Wolves on Saturday.





Shelvey has begun the season in fine form for the Magpies with three goals and an assist in eight matches - including a sumptuous third in the 6-0 midweek thrashing of Queens Park Rangers.

Jonjo Shelvey worldie in the #NUFC 6-0 demolition of QPR at Loftus Road 13/9/16 https://t.co/ZEPnfr9ZGp — Total:NUFC (@total_nufc) September 13, 2016

The 24-year-old already has six caps for the senior England national team, but has not featured for the Three Lions since last November's 2-0 friendly win over France.





Benitez, however, believes England manager Sam Allardyce will have to keep tabs on the midfielder if he maintains his excellent start to the campaign at St. James' Park.





He said: “If he (Shelvey) can keep his consistency and keep working as hard as he was working, and playing at the level he’s been playing, then why not?

“If someone scores a goal like Jonjo did at QPR and everybody is talking about him, then I’m sure Allardyce will have the information to see if Jonjo can stay at this level or even any of the other players can.”





Benitez also called on Allardyce to look to the Championship for potential England internationals.





The former Liverpool and Real Madrid gaffer claims that there is an abundance of footballing talent in England's second tier that could perform on the world stage.

And, having viewed first hand the dearth of options available to Allardyce in the Premier League, Benitez believes the former Sunderland boss should look to the lower leagues for future squads.





He added: “The Championship is at a very good level now. There are a lot of good English players in this league. You don’t have too many in the Premier League.





“Every year in every country – it’s the same in Spain – everybody is complaining, saying there are too many foreign players and we don’t have any space for the English players.





“You have less in the Premier League, but you have more in the Championship.”

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