Manchester United Under-21s coach Travis Binnion has said the club faces a collective challenge to try and increase the fitness levels of youngster Sekou Kone.

Kone, 18, joined United from Guidars FC in his native Mali last summer for a fee just north of £1million. United considered Kone to be a player with high potential and they believe he has first-team potential.

After arriving at Old Trafford on deadline day, the youngster essentially went through an individual pre-season programme before making his debut for the Under-21s as a substitute in a 5-2 away defeat to Sunderland in November.

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Unfortunately for the youngster, he was forced off with an injury in just his third appearance for the club, being withdrawn shortly before half-time in United Under-21s' 4-1 defeat to Huddersfield Town in the EFL Trophy less than a week after making his debut.

Since overcoming that setback, he has featured twice for the Under-21s, starting the weekend's 2-1 win over Aston Villa in the Premier League 2 and Tuesday night's 3-1 defeat to FC Nordsjaelland in the Premier League International Cup.

Offering his verdict on the midfielder's performance against the Danish side, Binnion told United's club website: "I think he's found tonight really hard. He played 75 minutes on Saturday and he'll go again against Brighton. We're getting games into him and training into him.

"Listen, he's a good player [and] he's going to be a really good player. He's still getting to grips with the language, the intensity, the positional stuff, and his own fitness.

"You can see tonight that some of their players are fitter than him, some of our players are fitter than him, and that can't be right in time. In time, he's got to be everywhere on the pitch and finding it easy physically at this level.

"That's the challenge of where we've got to get to and we will get there, he will get there. But [it is] just nice to see him training, playing and keep building on things."