JAY Rodriguez is revelling in the experience of playing in Europe - and is hoping it will help provide a platform from which to get back into the England squad.

The Saints forward is fit and firing again, after missing all of last season with a knee injury, scoring the equaliser in last week’s 1-1 Europa League play-off draw with FC Midtjylland.

Rodriguez certainly seems to have embraced the experience of continental competition, and believes it is an ideal stage to showcase his talents.

“It is. It’s obviously a different experience to the Premier League, it’s a different challenge, but it’s where players want to be,” he said, ahead of tonight’s second leg in Denmark.

“That’s what you want to go and do, and perform on the big stage.”

Rodriguez added: “It’s great, I’m learning so much from this experience and, obviously, being back in the Premier League,” he said.

“The Europa League, you can gain so much experience, because it’s new to a lot of us players and it’s good.”

England manager Roy Hodgson names his next squad this Sunday, for the Euro qualifiers against San Marino and Switzerland.

However, having only just returned to action, Rodriguez – who might have been selected for the 2014 World Cup had he not been injured – says that is not something he is considering right now.

“At the moment I’m just concentrating week by week to get as much amount of fitness and sharpness as I can, and just take each game and try and gain confidence from each game and training, so it’s a case of just taking it slowly and hopefully it comes,” he said.

Rodriguez added: “I haven’t really thought too much about it. It’s basically getting the start of the season underway and having a good start to the season, that’s the main thing, and that’s all I’m focused on really.”

But regaining a place in the England squad remains a prime target.

“Of course, it was the highlight of my career,” said Rodriguez, who won his first cap in a November 2013 friendly against Chile.

“To go and represent your country is the best thing for a player to do that, so that’s the dream and that’s what you aspire to, so of course that’s the best thing.”

Rodriguez’s goal against Midtjylland last week, from the penalty spot, was his first competitive strike since March 2014, and he is confident that, despite being in a precarious position, Saints will still advance against the Danish champions.

“We’re confident in every game we go and approach that we’ve done our work, we’ve worked hard on our philosophy and our play and we believe that we are strong and we’re coming here to win,” he said.

Rodriguez added: “Obviously, you learn how they play and it was a frustrating game, but the chances that we had we probably could have taken them on a different night, so you learn different styles of play from different countries, and we’ll look to take the experience from the last leg into this leg now.”