Wilshere - the 'future' of England.

Fabio Capello has hailed the improvement made by Jack Wilshere and told the Arsenal midfielder he will be England's new holding midfielder.

Wilshere, who had a short substitute appearance against Hungary in August, will be given the chance Denmark on February 9 to prove he is ready for a key role in the England side.

Capello wants Wilshere to sit in midfield after seeing Gareth Barry fail to shine in the role and Owen Hargreaves, Capello's first choice, fail to get over his injury problems.

"Hargreaves played this position very, very well every game," Capello told the Daily Telegraph.

"But after the knee problem, he was never back.

"I put different players in there but they'd never played in this position. Barry with Aston Villa never played this position. He started to play there only with me [and now with Manchester City]. But I saw Wilshere play every game in this position."

Capello sees Wilshere taking on a role which Claude Makelele, currently with Paris Saint-Germain, filled for France, Chelsea and Real Madrid.

"Wilshere is better technically than Makelele. He's slower than Makelele but when he receives the ball he is more dangerous than Makelele.

"Wilshere is the best young player. He now plays all the time with Arsenal. If you play with Arsenal, you are a really good player because Arsene Wenger likes good players.

"I think he's mature enough to play this role. He's a really interesting player.

"The players will arrive really tired. They play a lot of games before this. I have to change and make six substitutions. But it will be important for Wilshere to understand he will be the future."

Capello also revealed he was happy to see Wilshere's team-mate Theo Walcott back in action.

"He is playing how I remember when he started to play with us. It was a tough decision leaving Theo out for the World Cup.

"He is one of the players after the World Cup I thought about a lot. I made a mistake not selecting him."