Alex McCarthy has been backed to make the grade for England if he gets named in Gareth Southgate’s latest squad.

Southgate was in attendance for Saints’ 2-1 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park last weekend and was reportedly there to watch McCarthy.

The Saints stopper has twice been called into the England squad but has yet to win a cap.

However, with England planning for the future after their run to the World Cup semi-finals, the 28-year-old appears to be in Southgate’s thoughts ahead of games against Spain and Switzerland next month.

Saints boss Mark Hughes believes his man is up to the task.

“Alex has been fine, doing good work in training and hasn’t really had any opportunity with the goals that have gone past him,” said Hughes.

“He has made key saves, certainly in the Burnley game.

“He’s in good form and if he’s picked he won’t let anybody down.

“Technically Gareth will know he’s a very accomplished keeper so if he gets the call I see no reason he won’t impress people once he gets there.

“He’s a modern-day keeper and arguably towards the end of last year he made some saves that were match defining saves.

“It’s the mark of a top quality keeper when they make saves at key moments in games, make saves to protect results or situations you find yourself in and enable you to have that defensive platform to see results to a conclusion.

“Alex did that on any number of occasions last year and we were grateful for that.”

McCarthy has come a long way in a short space of time for Saints.

This time last year he was virtually no more than a back-up for Fraser Forster, but now finds himself as the club’s number one with a bumper new contract that sees him through to 2022.

And rather than Forster for direct competition he has Angus Gunn after Saints’ £10m move for the promising stopper in the summer.

That McCarthy has coped with all of this and shone in Saints’ relegation battle is proof of a certain amount of mental fortitude which is required at international level.

“He’s got a lot of pressure for his role,” admitted Hughes.

“He has superseded Fraser here but he has another outstanding keeper we brought to the club in Angus.

“He has pressure to perform which he knows and seems to thrive on.

“He’s obviously come into the role of number one at a Premier League club, he’s embraced that and he’s enjoying the experience.”