Michael O'Neill has revealed that he will assess if Connor Taylor is ready for the rigours of Championship football during the summer, in conversation with Stoke on Trent Live.
The 20-year-old, who is currently thriving on a loan spell with Bristol Rovers in League Two, has featured 37 times for the Pirates this season, starting all but one of those games.
In what has been an excellent campaign for the young defender thus far, he has also been nominated for League Two's Young Player of the Season award, an indication to just how impressive he has been.
Speaking to Stoke on Trent Live about what the immediate future holds for the young defender, O'Neill said: “When he comes back in pre-season he’ll be part of the squad and we’ll make an assessment of where he is. That’s what we did with Harry. Harry had numerous loans at Ross County then Fleetwood and he came back and the previous manager opted for him to go back to Fleetwood.
“I brought him back at the first opportunity and we assessed him in pre-season. Harry thought it was right to go out on loan again, I thought it wasn’t and he’s now a Stoke player. That’s what you have to do and you have to fight to come through.
“It’ll be really good for us to see Connor. When you drop players back into the first team squad and maybe start to look at them in pre-season games, that’s when you get a real picture of where his progression is.
“We watch him regularly playing at League Two level but it’s when we bring him back into the group here that we’ll be able to assess where he is at this minute in time.
"We’ve got Harry coming back, we’ve got Ben Wilmot who is a young centre-half, we’ve got Will Forrester, we’ve had Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Ostigard on loan – both young centre-backs as well – and we’ve had experience in Jagielka, Chester and Danny Batth for part of the season.
“It’ll be really good for us to see Connor. If he’s been nominated for that award he’s obviously had a very good season.”
The verdict
Taylor has been mightily impressive for the promotion-chasing League Two outfit and could continue to be an integral figure during the concluding stages of the campaign.
It would be no surprise to see a lot of interest in the young defender by the time summer comes around, with perhaps League One clubs putting forward loan proposals to the Potters.
However, he could be deemed ready for first team football in the Championship with a full pre-season behind him.
An excellent ball carrier, Taylor meets the modern-day demands of being a central defender, whilst he also possesses the physicality and defensive intelligence to match.