Jürgen Klopp admits he is pleased for Ben Woodburn after the youngster's first ever call-up to the Wales senior squad, but stressed the forward still has a long way to go in his development.

On Thursday, the 17-year-old was named as part of Chris Coleman's 23-man squad for the fixture with the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on Friday March 24.

Klopp told his pre-Manchester City press conference: “Obviously Ben is happy about it, so I’m happy about it. That’s the first thing.

“Do I think it should have been now? I would say probably not, but is it a problem? No. It’s OK, it’s only because of the stories now around and we cannot stop this.

“Ben is a wonderful kid and he can deal with it, 100 per cent. He understands this all and he knows really what he has still to learn and all that stuff.  

“I can understand then that Wales thought, ‘Come on, bring him.’ I heard the manager said he’s one of the best 23 players in Wales, so he needs to be there. That’s his decision and all good.

“But now we are two managers who have to make sure that he develops in the right way because usually it was more my responsibility, but now we can share it a little bit, so that’s good.”

LFCTV GO: Klopp's pre-City press conference in full