Middlesbrough FC: Michael Carrick reveals "ongoing decisions" around player exit | OneFootball

The Boro boss isn't sure what to do with the midfielder yet.

Michael Carrick is weighing up the pros and cons of a January loan move for Middlesbrough academy product Law McCabe.

Boro have had plenty of exciting prospects emerge into their first-team over recent seasons. Not all of them make the cut for the first-team though, leading to opportunities elsewhere presenting themselves.

Josh Coburn, Sonny Finch and Samuel Silvera are all away from Teesside temporarily in order to get more minutes, although another injury for the striker and inconsistent game time for the other two means they aren't getting the most out of their time apart from Middlesbrough.

McCabe is another candidate to make a move elsewhere in the new year. Regarded as one of Boro's best prospects, the centre-midfielder made his first team debut last season.

But opportunities to play with the first-team, partially because of the depth that Carrick has in the 18-year-old's position, haven't found their way to him so far in this campaign, thus opening the door for a potential loan spell somewhere else in order to give McCabe those chances.

Michael Carrick on the prospect of a January loan move for Law McCabe

Middlesbrough's head honcho has admitted that he isn't sure what will happen with McCabe in the new year; whether it is best for him to go and play somewhere else or continue to work with the first-team.

"With Law, we’ll see. We’ll make a call on that," said Carrick, via the Northern Echo. "He’s doing really well. With the ball, it comes natural to him - his feel and the way he receives the ball for a pass.

"For his frame and his size, the physicality is a side that’s to come as he develops, and that’s something we try to help him with - picking what’s the best move for him to have the next step in his career.

"Sometimes, that will be training with and being a part of our group, other times it might be taking the step to go out on loan. They’re ongoing decisions really, and we always try to make the best one that we can."

With these temporary transfers for inexperienced players, it's not a one-size fits all exercise, as Carrick explained.

"Especially with younger players, there’s always an element of what’s the right loan, or what’s the best loan. Sometimes, it’s a loan where they take a step into a different environment, and it doesn’t always go your way but gives you the experience to set you on your way through your career as you come back here mentally stronger.

"Sometimes, it’s going and playing a lot of football, and sometimes key to that might be playing a similar style of football, other times it might be playing a different style.

"It always depends totally on each individual player, and is definitely not a blanket of, ‘You get to a certain age and you need to go out on loan as part of your development’. It’s very individualised. We try to be as thoughtful in that as we possibly can."

A loan move feels like the best option for Law McCabe

With Hayden Hackney and the returning Aidan Morris ahead of the teenager in the Boro midfield pecking order, the chances are that he will be limited to under-21s appearances and first-team training if he were to stay in Teesside for the remainder of the term.

Like Carrick said, it is very much down to the individual's needs whether a loan move would benefit them, but he can look at Coburn's first loan move to Bristol Rovers as a potential reason why they should.

He went to a lower division, where McCabe would almost certainly go, showed off his talents, and it gave him the launch pad that he needed to properly challenge for a first-team spot at the Riverside. The same could happen with McCabe if he succeeds in a half-season spell away.