Amad Diallo’s Manchester United future will be decided before Christmas, according to manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The 19-year-old joined the Premier League giants from Serie A outfit Atalanta owing to his impressive displays in the Italian top-flight.
Having scored in his maiden Europa League game against AC Milan, he became the youngest non-British player to ever score in major European competition for the Old Trafford giants at 18 years and 243 days.
Nevertheless, he has been frozen out of the star-studded United squad. In August, his proposed loan move to Feyenoord hit the rocks as the teenager suffered a thigh injury.
Following his return to basic training at Carrington, his Norwegian manager talked about what the future holds for him at the English top-flight outfit.
“Amad trained in his first session with the team on Friday before Leicester City and he is still continuing his rehab getting more and more training sessions with the full team,” Solskajaer told media ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League match with Atalanta.
“He’ll probably play in the 23s very soon when he’s ready for that and I’ve got to say his development has been exactly what we want from him.
“He’s come here learning the language, learning the way we play, he’s strong, he can take the ball and we have to make a decision before Christmas what he’s going to do.
“Is he going to play enough here? Which is possible. Or if the next step is for him to play somewhere else and come back in the summer.
“That’s a decision for later but he’s developing very nicely but this injury was bad timing, as every injury is.”
The Ivorian prodigy had warned United not to make a "huge mistake" against his former team.
"First of all, we must not underestimate Atalanta,” he told MUTV.
"If you underestimate Atalanta, you are making a huge mistake. They have got a great coach, a great team and they have got good fans. They press high, they don't let you play and they put you in difficulty.
“The wingers, [Robin] Gosens and [Ruslan] Malinovsky, are strengths of theirs, they will give you a difficult game.
“Even when they don't have the ball, they will run a lot, especially those two. If you lose the ball, then you're in trouble because they run so much and they'll get it."