Crewe Alexandra Boss Dario Gradi has handed youngster Nick Powell the number 25 shirt after calling the youngster up for first team duty for Saturday’s 0-1 home defeat to Hereford United.
A first year Apprentice, Powell has been elevated to the first-team squad after a strong pre-season.
Powell made his first-team bow in the pre-season friendly against Blackpool and certainly caught the imagination of the Alex crowd with a fantastic late run.
Powell, still only 16, is set to join up with the England Under-17 squad next month and Dario has revealed that the talented teenager will be used sparingly this season.
Spaking to the Club’s official website, Gradi said:
“He is a very talented boy and maybe he is ready. You never really know until you put them in but he absorbs information quickly and listens. He can play that midfield role and his performances of late merit his promotion to the first-team squad.”
“I have to be careful with him because he is still 16 years-old. If it was 12 months on and he had played another full season then I would be thinking about putting him in more often but he definitely won’t be in the first-team squad every week because I want him to be playing.”
“He is away with England next month so we will be without him then anyway. He has got ability and showed against Blackpool that he is worth another look.”
