Carlos Corberan predicts Jamie Shackleton will reach Leeds first-team

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Carlos Corberan believes that Leeds United youngster Jamie Shackleton will soon be plying his trade in the first-team.

Carlos Corberan told LUTV that he thought that Jamie Shackleton played amazingly well in Leeds’ under-23 defeat to Millwall on Monday, and insisted that the 18-year-old will reach the Whites first-team in the future.

Shackleton is one of the brightest prospects coming through a Leeds academy that continues to give the Elland Road faithful plenty to smile about, especially with the first-team’s campaign fizzling out in underwhelming fashion.

It has been a difficult season for the teenager, with injury restricting the amount of progress that he has been able to make. But he returned against the Lions. And while the game ended in a 2-0 defeat for Leeds, Corberan was full of praise for Shackleton and made a confident prediction regarding his future.

“Jamie came back from a long-term injury and started in the first XI because we didn’t have enough players to play the game so he started,” he told LUTV. “And he, for me, played an amazing game. He is one of the players that, for me, has the potential to help Leeds and I, 100 per cent, think he’s going to be in the future in our first-team.”

The pathway to the first-team is definitely there for the under-23s. With the first-team struggling, Paul Heckingbottom has handed chances to the likes of Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Tom Pearce and Paudie O’Connor, and it would not be a surprise if a number of others were handed an opportunity before the campaign concludes.

Callum Nicell probably sits ahead of Shackleton in the pecking order given that he was on the bench against Sunderland at the weekend, but if the centre midfielder continues to impress, perhaps his return to the under-23s will only be a brief one and Corberan’s prediction will come to fruition.