Former teachers of footballer Luke Shaw have spoken out about his school days as he prepares to take on Uruguay in the World Cup.

Although the ex-Rydens Enterprise School (RES) student stayed on the bench for England’s first group match against Italy on Saturday, staff of his former school in Hersham complimented his football ability.

Steve Hart, PE teacher at RES, said: "Luke’s performance in PE lessons was summed up in two words; commitment, huge commitment, and talent.

"Luke was part of a team who reached five consecutive borough finals, a record for our school, and also reached the semi-final stage of the national cup finals at U15s .

"Luke scored a number of goals, I believe 27 goals in that season, and carried us all the way through to the semi-final."

The 19-year-old was signed by Southampton FC when he was a year 5 pupil at Chandlers Field Primary School and was selected for the England squad in May this year.

Heidi Stone, assistant principal at RES, said Luke was always modest and got on well with students and teachers alike. She said: "He was quite a humble young man, quite modest amongst his friendships and certainly in his football.

"He knew how good he was and I’m not quite sure we were aware of that at the time, but you would never see a sign of arrogance with Luke on the football field."

Nikki Knight, principal, said she always reiterated the importance of exams to Luke.

Ms Knight said: "We had a really interesting conversation one day in my office talking about his plan B, and if he didn’t make it as a footballer, he would need his GCSEs.

"He promised me he was going to work really hard. He didn’t do as well as he might have done in his GCSE’s but wow, what a fantastic footballer he is."