England manager Roy Hodgson has claimed that it is "tremendous" to see Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane become a key player at White Hart Lane.

After a number of loan spells in the early stages in his career, Kane started to secure more minutes under former head coach Tim Sherwood last season before forcing Mauricio Pochettino to pick him ahead of fellow forwards Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado in the current campaign.

Despite revealing his admiration for the 21-year-old, Hodgson refused to suggest whether he was in line for a call-up to his squad, but did suggest that he will have a key role for England Under-21s at the European Championship this summer.

"Harry is one of those players – Andros Townsend being another one – who didn't exactly burst on to the scene in his club side and get straight in," Hodgson told SiriusXM FM. "They got loaned out first and sent out to different places to learn their trade, if you like, or at least pick up some important aspects of their trade.

"We have watched [Kane] for a while and I worked with him briefly in the Under-21s when I filled in for one game. Harry has come on in leaps and bounds and I'm not surprised because I know Tim Sherwood and Les Ferdinand very well.

"They have worked with him at Tottenham and they always believed in him as a goalscorer. It's tremendous to see people like him doing so well and quite strange that in the Under-21s a year or two ago we were bemoaning the fact we didn't think our forwards were up to the level of the midfielders."

Kane's full England debut could come when England take on Lithuania and Italy in the final week of March.