Gareth Southgate comments on Leeds United duo's England prospects for next summer's Euros

Holding midfielder Phillips was widely expected to be heading for his first international call up for the March friendlies against Denmark and Italy until the games were cancelled due to the country's battle against coronavirus.

Centre-back and Brighton loanee White, meanwhile, has played every single minute of every 2019-20 league game for Championship front-runners Leeds who boast the best defence in the division.

Aged 24 and 22 respectively, Phillips and White have time on their side and Southgate said both players might well come into the reckoning for his squad for Euro 2020 which has been postponed amidst the coronavirus pandemic and will now take place next year.

The England boss name-checked both Phillips and White in assessing potential on the back of talking about Manchester United's 18-year-old Bradford-born forward Mason Greenwood and Manchester City's 20-year-old midfielder Phil Foden.

“When we’re analysing our players – and we’ve done quite a lot of in depth analysis over the past months, position by position – we talk about potential a lot,” said Southgate, speaking to the Independent.

"With the Greenwoods and the Fodens I think that's fine.

"The danger is when you're still talking about potential at 24 and 25.

"It depends on what their season starts to look like.

"If they have a season in terms of opportunity, like Mason Mount did this year - playing in the Champions League, playing in a top four side, playing under pressure - then that can be a great development year for them.

“I’m very conscious there will be a group or around 30 to 35 who have been in and around the squad in the past 12-18 months, who will be in the frame, but there will be some guys who come late.

“We’ve talked about those two (Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden), but it could be a Ben White, who has been on loan at Leeds, or a Kalvin Phillips that haven’t played Premier League football yet.

"Those sorts of players could come into the frame. We’re always open to what it looks like.”

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