England's national team must ensure they miss out on securing Aston Villa's rising star Jack Grealish chooses to represent them over Republic of Ireland at senior level, according to former Aston Villa and England midfielder Lee Hendrie.
Grealish, 19, impressed in the FA Cup semifinal win over Liverpool on Sunday and is now in the middle of a tug-of-war between England and the Republic of Ireland over his international services.
The midfielder was born and brought up in Solihull but his father is from Dublin and he has already played for the Republic of Ireland at U17, U18 and U21 levels.
However Hendrie, who played over 250 times for Villa but picked up just one England cap, believes that England should move quickly to snap him up.
"We want to try to bring as many young English players through as possible and, if we miss the boat with Jack, it is a crying shame," Hendrie told the Daily Telegraph. "I personally think he might jump across and play for England.
"I know he has played at the lower levels for Ireland but I think he would jump across if he was considered to be a key figure for them [England]. And, looking at his talent, he should have every chance."
England face Ireland on June 7 in a friendly in Dublin, but the player will reportedly refuse any offer to play for either senior side while he makes up his mind over his future.
Grealish stepped away from the Irish U21 setup last year and said at the time: "It's always a joy to come here and put the green jersey on. Hopefully I'll be back in the green jersey. It's a big decision which country I'm going to play for, it's an honour to have that decision, but at the moment I'm just concentrating on my club football."
Speaking on TalkSPORT, his father Kevin said: "My parents are Irish, Kerry and Galway. My wife's father is from Dublin. I was born in Birmingham and Jack was born in Solihul and he played for Ireland at the age of 14. We went with the flow at the time. Everyone is talking seriously about it now and saying what are you going to do.
"Over the last few months, I've been asked the questions loads and loads of times. Jack has had a good game on Sunday and he has had a few decent games recently for Aston Villa. He just needs to keep doing that and his international chance will come if he keeps performing.
"It's completely up to Jack. There is a friendly coming on June 7 and we could play 45 minutes for Ireland and 45 minutes for England. Half and half, who knows. He has just got to get on with it and cross every bridge as he goes."
The attacking midfielder starred as Villa beat Liverpool this weekend and has enjoyed a run in the side since Tim Sherwood became Villa manager.
"He's given me a great load of belief, and I hope I can continue that to the end of the season," he said.
While Sherwood told TalkSPORT: "I had the same situation with Nabil Bentaleb [at Spurs]. He could have gone to play for France, he decided to pick Algeria.
"I did have a chat with him. He asked me for my views and I told him he had to go with his heart. Do you think you are French or Algerian? That is the decision he needed to make and he decided to pick Algeria. Now Jack needs to make that same decision."