Nigel Pearson says Dylan Kadji has the potential to be the next academy player to break into the first-team this season but was keen to stress there is no need to raise the expectations on his shoulders.
The young midfielder starred in the Under-23s run to the Development Cup final last season and was rewarded by training with the senior side during pre-season. Injury ruled him out of the tour of Austria, and a handful of matches but his 20-minute cameo against Bournemouth when he replaced Alex Scott suggests the manager sees him as part of his plans going forward.
Kadji, 18, has yet to make a professional appearance for the Robins but Pearson is not shy is handing youngsters their opportunities when needed. He gave nine players their first-team debuts throughout the course of last campaign.
In an interview with BBC Radio Bristol on Monday, the manager admitted certain youngsters may get their opportunities to impress because his squad remains on the thin side and while ideally he would like to send some out on loan, as it stands he can't afford to let them leave.
Central midfield is one of the areas that Pearson would be keen to bolster before the transfer window closes on September 1. There's also the uncertainty surrounding Han-Noah Massengo's short-term future with City having entered the final year of his contract with the manager suggesting he will play a bit-part role until his next move is decided.
When asked whether Kadji could emerge into the senior set-up, Pearson responded: "Potentially. But don't pigeon-hole him, don't label him as being the next one to break in because he has a bit of an unfortunate pre-season where he has been training with us for a while now.
"He got injured and was out for a while which meant he missed out on the opportunity to come to Austria with us.
"I thought he did really well (against Bournemouth) when he went on, he was dynamic, he's got good physical attributes but I'm not going to label players or try and put undue pressure on them.
"There's enough pressure when they're first-team training - that puts them under pressure so they don't need the added one of being spoken about too highly in the media when they are making their way in the game."
Another youngster who has featured in pre-season is 17-year-old central defender Raphael Araoye. The towering starlet came off the bench against Exeter and Bournemouth and impressed in his cameos.
Pearson admits he's a defender suited to the modern game and has the potential to rise through the ranks but it appears the manager will be patient with his progress hinting Araoye will be back with the youth set-up for the majority of the season.
"He's the next one to get an opportunity," Pearson added. "Whatever you do, don't start thinking of him as a first-team squad player because what was important for him was to get a taste of the first-team environment.
"I felt it was a challenge (against Bournemouth) that was going to be tough for him on the day because he still has an awful lot to learn but playing alongside someone like Timm Klose who has experience and Jay Dasilva, we felt physically he could deal with it.
"He didn't have a great deal of time to think about the challenge and I think he enjoyed it but 30 minutes of a pre-season game doesn't elevate him to a status which is unrealistic to him.
"He's another one of our youngsters coming through the academy which has attributes to lend themselves much to the modern game, but we have to be careful with how we expose players like that. Sometimes players, when they start thinking too much can struggle. He'll be going now mostly back down to his own age group which is how it should be."
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