Daily Echo:

SAINTS midfielder James Ward-Prowse made a poignant trip to Auschwitz as England under-21s prepare for their Euro 2017 semi-final.

The captain, several members of the squad and coaching staff visited the former concentration and extermination camp, where around 1.1million people were killed during World War Two.

The group were taken on a full guided tour of two main sites at Auschwitz, including the second camp a few kilometres away at Birkenau. The trip was not compulsory.

Boss Aidy Boothroyd said: "It was something that we wanted to do, it's a poignant and quite an upsetting place but it's somewhere that everybody should visit to see what happened there.

"It is a place that I'm glad I've gone to, it just puts things into perspective and in a strange way, I'm pleased that a lot of the lads wanted to go and visit and show their respect.

"We've done what I think is the right thing. Everybody wanted to go, staff and players, so I'm glad we've done it."

Ward-Prowse proposed the idea that the squad join the staff on the trip ahead of their game in the last four against Germany tomorrow.

He said: "It was moving and a very humbling experience for all of us.

"It's obviously a tragic thing that happened and it's been an experience for us to come and see what went on and where it happened. It's good to be able to use some of our time in Poland to come and see it.

"It's something that I've wanted to do for a long while and I think a few of the other lads felt the same as well.

"So it was something that we raised when we knew that we had some free time between games that we'd like to do, come and visit Auschwitz to pay our respects to those who sadly lost their life."