Ellis Taylor's Sunderland situation explained and why he can't play for the first team after Hartlepool loan

The 19-year-old has returned to Wearside after making just four League Two appearances at Pools, and captained the Black Cats’ under-21s team during a 4-1 defeat by Wolves.

Taylor did travel with the first-team squad for their Championship match at Blackpool on New Year’s Day but can’t play for Tony Mowbray’s side until his loan at Hartlepool ends.

The player will be unavailable for this weekend’s FA Cup match at Shrewsbury after playing for Pools earlier in the competition.

When asked about Taylor after the Wolves game, Sunderland under-21s boss Graeme Murty told the Echo: "The plan is to manage his minutes and make sure we get him lots of volume, which he hasn’t unfortunately had.

“We have to make sure we get him some training volume, and he’s been training with the first team.

“Unfortunately his loan doesn’t end until the middle of January so he can’t be involved with the first team but he needs minutes so we are going to give him them with us.

“We made him captain and asked him to lead a bit. He tried really hard to lead in a challenging situation I would say.”

As Taylor hasn’t played for Sunderland’s first team this season he could be loaned out to another club this month.

Asked if that could happen, Murty replied: “I don’t know about that, that will be out of my remit. That sits with the first team at the moment.

“We are just managing his minutes and putting him in the team when required.”