John Stones wants the people of Barnsley to get behind him and his England under 21 team-mates on his emotional return to Oakwell.

Thurlstone's Stones, who was nurtured in the Barnsley academy before making a £3 million move to Premier League Everton in 2013, will be back at the club he made his name at for the first time as a player on Thursday. The defender, who turned 21 last week, is hoping for a big turnout at Oakwell to back the young Lions against Belarus before they head out to the European Championships in the Czech Republic. Tickets sales are currently around 10,000.

Stones told the Chronicle: "It will be strange being back at Oakwell and not playing for Barnsley, but it will be great representing England and seeing all my friends there.  I think it will be nice for them to watch me playing there again. Obviously it's been a while but I always go back to watch Barnsley play so to be back playing on my home ground will be good.

"Just to walk back on the pitch will be great and I'm really looking forward to it. The fans at Barnsley will always get 100 per cent behind you and I'm sure they will turn out in their thousands to watch this England under 21 team."

Stones has earned four caps for the England senior team since moving to Merseyside. He is rated among the brightest talents within the English game but remains grounded and thankful to his upbringing with the Reds, for whom he made 28 appearances and scored once.

He said: "When I was in the youth team, Mark Burton and Ronnie Branson (academy coaches) taught me a lot and I still go and see them now and talk about when we played in the under 18s.

"I can't thank them enough for what they did for me. I am still in touch with everyone at the club and we try and meet up as much as we can.  I will always try and get across to watch them or meet up with the players I played with in the youth teams because we were so close and grew up together so we try to keep in contact."

Stones attended Barnsley's last game of the season in which several of his fellow academy products starred in a 5-0 thrashing of his former manager Keith Hill's Rochdale.

He said: "It was good to be there and I remember playing in some of the last games (of seasons), coming on as a sub when you are young and it's a great feeling. You hope for a win of course but just to even get on the pitch and see the fans running on at the end of the game, that atmosphere when you are young is a big thing to experience."