Jack Grealish eyeing up England team-mate Harry Kane

Jack Grealish is taking inspiration from international team-mate Harry Kane ahead of England's Euro 2020 campaign.

Grealish follows Kane's lead

Aston Villa playmaker Grealish is preparing for his first major international tournament after being selected as part of Gareth Southgate's 26-man squad.

The 25-year-old is coming off the back of an impressive Premier League campaign for Villa and is in strong contention to start England's Group D opener with Croatia.

Kane seems certain to feature from the beginning in Sunday's clash at Wembley and Grealish, who captains his club side, is hoping to continue learning from the Three Lions skipper.

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"I speak to Harry a lot," Grealish said at a news conference on Wednesday. "I speak to everyone in the changing room. 

"I think it's good when you do come away with England to get different opinions off people, see what certain people do, what certain people don't do.

"But when you come away here there's no better person to look at than Harry Kane, to see the way he looks after himself and stuff like that.

"I think the main thing is you come here and you see the likes of Jordan Henderson and Harry Kane, and what they do off the field.

"Obviously what they do on it we can all see that, but what they do on the training pitch and around the place and how they look after themselves, and you sit there and you think it's no wonder why they've had the careers that they have had.

"And that's I think one of the main things that has made me mature as a player, as a person and as a captain."

Kane topped the scoring charts in Euro 2020 qualifying with 12 goals and also finished as top scorer in the Premier League in 2020-21.

That made the Tottenham striker the third player after Thierry Henry (four) and Alan Shearer to win the Golden Boot three times or more.

He also set up 14 goals to become just the second player in the Premier League era to top the charts for both goals and assists (also Andy Cole in 1993-94).

Kane was edged out by Manchester City pair Kevin De Bruyne and Ruben Dias for the two main Premier League Player of the Year awards, and Grealish believes the Spurs man deserves more recognition for his incredible campaign.

"For me, he's at the very top of his game right now," Grealish added. "I think he's had one of the best Premier League seasons I've seen. 

"I don't know how he didn't get more awards than he did, with the most goals and the most assists."

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Despite missing 12 matches, Grealish was by far and away the most fouled player in the English top flight last season with 110 fouls won.

His 2.68 dribbles completed per 90 minutes was bettered by just six players to have played at least 20 times, meanwhile, with his skills on the ball and ability to win free-kicks both likely to come in handy for England at the Euros.

"I got a few kicks last week in the two friendlies," Grealish said. "But like I said after those games, if I'm doing something to help the team, I'll do that.

"You look around our team here and you see the set-piece takers here that we've got - especially Trips [Kieran Trippier]. 

"Obviously it was unfortunate that Trent [Alexander-Arnold] went home - but there's still so many people that have just got unbelievable set-piece ability here.

"So if I'm getting fouled or whatever, I'll take the hits for the team. That doesn't really bother me."