Harry still so hungry

HARRY MAGUIRE used to think his toughest job in football was facing Gary Madine in League One. Tomorrow, Leicester’s £17m centre-back

(above) is set to pick up his fourth England cap in a World Cup warm-up game against Holland.

With Italy to come at Wembley on Tuesday, times have certainly changed for Maguire, who joined the Foxes in the summer.

Looking back at the tests he faced, the 25-year-old said: “When I was playing in League One, I used to analyse my opponents a lot.

“Every week, I used to think, ‘I have got another big test here’.

“I can remember playing against Gary Madine when he was at Sheffield Wednesday and I was at Sheffield United.

“He was always a big handful, a good player. Back then I thought he was a top player and he was going to be hard to mark.

Power

“But then I have progressed up the leagues and you come up against players who have played at the top level for years. Now it is Holland and Italy. It doesn’t get any easier.”

Madine is now at Championship high-fliers Cardiff while Maguire has clocked up 293 league and cup appearances and insists his time in the lower leagues did him the power of good.

“One thing for certain is that when you play in the lower leagues, you certainly get experience of playing games week in, week out, which is really big, especially as a young boy.

“You see a lot of players in the Premier League who are very talented young boys but they don’t really play or break into first teams until 21 or 22.

“By the age of 20 I had played around 160 games, which is quite a lot for a boy that age. I have always been really hungry to play at the top level, even when I was playing in League One.”

Maguire joined Leicester last summer after Hull crashed out of the Premier League.

He admitted: “I had to move on to give my World Cup chances the best opportunity and to try to stay in the Premier League. I felt Leicester was the right club.”