'More than enough' - Why Manchester United staff have been impressed by Sekou Kone after 105 minutes of football

Manchester United academy staff believe teenager Sekou Kone has first-team potential as they continue to help the young midfielder settle into his new surroundings.

The 18-year-old has played just 105 minutes of football for the academy so far and his first start for the club ended after 41 minutes on Tuesday night when he limped out of the EFL Trophy clash with League One Huddersfield Town.

Kone had been bright in the early stages at the John Smith's Stadium, but a heavy touch near his own penalty area invited a fair but robust challenge from David Kasumu, and the Mali youth international was unable to continue. He later left the ground on crutches, and his injury will now be assessed.

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A spell on the sidelines will be a blow to Kone, who is easing into life at United after a £1million move from Guidars FC in Mali in the summer. He has so far played 19 minutes in a Premier League 2 fixture, the second half of the Youth League rout against FK Zalgiris and now his EFL Trophy bow.

He competed well against a strong Huddersfield side before being forced off, and Under-21s boss Travis Binnion is pleased with what he has seen so far from Kone.

"He's a high potential player, there's no doubt about that, his games to this point have been 20 minutes at Sunderland in a game we were poor in, 45 minutes in a game where we were completely dominant in Under-19s," he said.

"To have his third game and his first start tonight, at that level, I thought for 20 minutes he was excellent. Then they get a little bit of pressure on him, it gets a little bit harder, it just shows he is learning where he's at and it's no problem.

"He's shown more than enough in the three games to suggest that with time and with work he's got a real chance of being a really good player, but it's a high potential under-21 player with first-team potential, I don't think we can get too ahead of ourselves.

"He's come off injured tonight so will have to see the severity of that. He needs to get fit, stay fit, get a run of training and games and then we'll where he's at."

United believe Kone can make the leap to the first-team in time and he has already had one training session with the senior set-up, but the adaptation from his training methods with a club in Mali to life at United can be complex and he is also learning a new language.

"Language is a big one, he's working hard on his English, probably learning a bit of French too," joked Binnion.

"It's just playing games, seeing pre-match and post-match sessions, analysis, translating them. You can see he can play the game and he's got real ability, it's just a run now and consistency and letting him learn and develop at his own rate."