Sheffield Wednesday teen starlet told to keep his feet on the ground

But attacking midfielder Conor Grant has been urged to stay grounded by Sheffield Wednesday's coaching staff.

The highly-rated youngster, recruited from from Shamrock Rovers in the summer of 2017 after impressing on trial, has featured prominently for the Owls Under-18s and 23s this season.

His sparkling form culminated in him recently being handed a first-team squad number ahead of Owls' trip to relegation-threatened Bolton Wanderers last month. Despite travelling with the senior team, Grant missed out on a place in Steve Bruce's matchday squad.

Nonetheless, the 17-year-old's inclusion in the first-team set-up underlined the great strides he has made in his fledgling career.

Neil Thompson, Wednesday's development manager, told The Star: "It was good to see Conor in the squad for the Bolton game. It gave everybody in the academy a lift.

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"But with any young player, it is all about keeping your feet on the ground.

"Conor is a good, level-headed lad. He loves his football. He is a good player and he has good awareness and we just have to keep working with him.

Grant also recently made his international debut, coming off the bench in the Republic of Ireland 19s 3-1 victory over Azerbaijan last month. His first Republic start came days later in Krasnodar as he helped his country defeat Russia 2-0.

"Conor went away with Ireland and did very well," said Thompson. "He has had a really good season.

"Conor has a good touch and vision. He does things which are a little bit different and you can see that from day one when he came into the building as a scholar.

"He is starting to come to the fore physically. He does a lot of work on that in the gym and is continuing to progress.

"We said to him before Christmas that he needed to start adding goals to his game and he has done that.

"He has to keep working hard and waiting for opportunities to come his way.

"Conor has a lot of ability but he has to keep his head down and get on with it and play his football."