Neil Warnock explains why Stephen Walker was recalled from MK Dons and loan plans for Middlesbrough youngsters
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Walker, 20, was recalled from MK Dons earlier this week after making 12 League One appearances for The Dons – yet just five of those were starts.
When asked about the forward ahead of this weekend’s home meeting with Birmingham, Neil Warnock said: “I saw him yesterday, Stephen and he enjoyed it there.
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Hide Ad“I think he’s got to play Stephen, if he’s not going to get in my team he’s got to go and play again.
“We’ve got one or two clubs wanting him so I’m sure he’ll go out on loan again but at the moment he’s training with us.”
The Teessiders are also looking to send some of their other young players out on loan to gain more first-team experience, like striker Rumarn Burrell who has signed for League Two side Bradford until the end of the season.
Boro have also talked about allowing winger Sam Folarin and defender Nathan Wood to leave on loan but don’t want to leave themselves short of options for the second half of the campaign.
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Hide Ad“We let Rumarn go out this week, and we’ve nearly agreed to another couple going out too,” said Warnock when asked about potential loan departures. “They all need to go and play now really.
“For me, once we get into this second half of the season and the transfer window ends, they need to be playing games and building up to come back in pre-season and be a little bit stronger so they can show us what they can do.”
“Sam’s the same. He falls into that category. There’s four or five of them that I spoke to Craig Liddle (Boro’s academy manager) about the other day.
"We all know it’s the best for him, like it is for Woody – the only problem with Woody is that we have to be careful and make sure we don’t cut our nose off to spite our face. I do realise he needs games if we can get him them.”