Walcott will bounce back - Taylor

England Under-21 coach Peter Taylor is confident Arsenal teenager Theo Walcott has not been left scarred by his World Cup experience.

Walcott, 17, who has not yet made a single appearance in the Barclays Premiership, had to shoulder huge public expectation after his surprise inclusion in Sven-Goran Eriksson's final 23-man World Cup squad.

But Taylor has been impressed with Walcott's maturity and said: "I met him for the first time on Sunday night. He seems a first class young boy. I don't think (the expectations will have affected him)."

He added: "He seems very sensible. He gets on with his training, he has been a hard-working boy. He just needs matches. If he can play 20 matches before Christmas we will see the real Theo Walcott.

"He is very young and I have only worked with him for one day but he looks as though he can handle things really well."

Walcott could start in Tuesday night's European Championship qualifier against Moldova at Portman Road, but he will certainly be involved at some stage in the game.

"He has not had much football so I am not so sure if he can play 90 minutes. I just have to decide whether he will be more dangerous playing in the second half," said Taylor.

"He is so quick, I wouldn't want to play against him if I was a little jaded."

"You can tell he is a very talented boy. He is very, very lively. In the training session we just had he made some great runs. It must be nice to be as quick as that."