Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell says the club are extremely thankful to Middlesbrough for allowing the highly-rated youngster Nathan Wood to join us on loan. Wood has teamed up with his ‘Boro team-mate, Stephen Walker, at the Alexandra Stadium until the end of the season.

The 18-year-old England Youth International is highly-regarded at the Riverside Stadium and Artell says the club are delighted that his parent club have been trusted to assist in his development.

Artell told the club’s official website: “Nathan is a really good player. He is a great prospect and if he carries on from the way he has started then he has a great chance.

“At the moment he is here with us and I am thankful to Middlesbrough for entrusting him with us. They have trusted us with helping the development of Nathan and Stephen and hopefully we will help them both become better players whilst they are with us.

“That is what we do here. We try and develop our players and it doesn’t matter if that is Nathan just starting out on his journey or one of our more senior players with 500 plus game under their belts.

“Nathan is a highly-regarded prospect and we will support him as much as we can.”