Gareth Southgate told his England Under-21 side yesterday that they must learn to cope with losing their stars to the senior squad.

The boss has lost Eric Dier and Dele Alli for the Young Lions’s Euro 2017 qualifier in Bosnia tonight to further reduce his options.

The Tottenham pair have been called up by Roy Hodgson for the games against Spain and France after their fine start to the season, with Alli hunting his third cap.

They follow Raheem Sterling, Luke Shaw, Harry Kane and Danny Ings from graduating from Southgate’s side and the boss knows they must deal with it.

“That’s the nature of the job, your very best players are always going to go straight through. From conversations with Roy at the beginning of this campaign it was clear Shaw, John Stones and Sterling were going to be with Roy from the start,” he said.

“Our aim is for more to get there. Eventually you hope the senior team is strong and it’s more difficult for the younger players and they have to work for longer but at the moment those guys are there on merit.

“We have lost a few players so it’s an opportunity to have a look at others which is always exciting.”