The talent

“I’ve had plenty of long conversations with him over the years about the areas he is really strong in and the areas he needs to develop,” said the England manager, who sees him as a number eight or 10 right now.

“He has been able to battle through difficult spells at Chelsea, training with senior players who recognise his talent so get into him in training.

“I imagine they probably saw the threat.

“This season going out and playing has helped him. In the early season I saw him and he showed flashes of what we saw against Germany and I think he can affect big matches like he did.

“He can probably add a little bit more quality in the final third, he can probably go and score more goals given some of the attributes he has got but I was really pleased to see the effect he had and to get a performance like that.”

Gareth Bale’s availability for Wales will not be compromised by the latest injury of his Real Madrid career, according to his international manager Chris Coleman.

Bale has not played since September 26 because of a calf problem but he had been stepping up his recovery and a return to action was imminent.

But the 28-year-old forward suffered a fibrillar rupture to the adductor muscle of his left leg on Thursday and could be sidelined for a further six weeks.

It is another blow to Bale’s injury-hit Real career with the Welshman having missed 91 of their 250 games since joining from Tottenham in 2013 for a thenworld record fee of £85.3million.

Bale sat out Wales’ 2-0 friendly defeat to France in Paris on Friday and his availability could become an issue when the Dragons play at the China Cup in March.

Wales will receive a greater fee if their top players make the 12,000mile round trip to the southern Chinese city of Nanning.