WITH a potential appearance at next summer’s European Under-21 Championships accompanying the possibility of winning promotion to the Premier League with Middlesbrough, Ben Gibson has admitted that the next eight months could help define his career.

However, with his place in Boro’s starting line-up not even assured as Aitor Karanka continues to rotate at regular intervals, the 21-year-old centre-half has also conceded that he cannot afford to take anything for granted despite making giant strides over the last 12 months.

Having started last season as a fringe player at best, Gibson has developed into an integral member of Boro’s first-team squad, with his seven appearances this term helping lift the Teessiders to fifth in the Championship.

Away from Teesside, he has also enjoyed considerable success at international level, establishing himself as a first-choice member of Gareth Southgate’s Under-21 side and appearing in both legs of this month’s qualifying play-off against Croatia that saw England’s youngsters qualify for next summer’s European finals in the Czech Republic.

Boro’s academy has a well-established reputation for being one of the most productive in the country, and Gibson is widely viewed as the next major talent to be emerging from Rockliffe Park.

This could well prove his breakthrough season, even if his level-headed nature prevents him looking too far into the future.

“It could be a fantastic few months, but there’s an awful lot of football to be played yet,” said Gibson, who is the nephew of the Boro chairman, Steve. “Now that the England stuff is out of the way for a while, I’m just concentrating on step by step and game by game, and in the Championship, you can’t really do anything other than that.

“If we don’t carry on this form, and I don’t keep developing and improving as a player, then it could be a disappointing end to the season. We’ve just got to go game by game, and both as a team and personally, we can’t look any further than that.”

Nevertheless, Southgate’s decision to select Gibson for both Under-21 play-off matches underlines just how highly the centre-half is rated within the coaching set-up at the FA.

With Everton’s Luke Garbutt and Newcastle United’s Jamaal Lascelles, who is on loan at Nottingham Forest, available, Southgate could have selected someone with a Premier League profile to partner Liam Moore in what was always going to be a pair of tricky games against Croatia.

Instead, he went with Gibson, and the Teessider responded with two excellent displays as England claimed a 2-1 win at home before overcoming a hostile crowd in Vinkovci to claim a 4-2 aggregate victory.

“That whole week was brilliant,” said Gibson. “First and foremost, it was a fantastic experience because you learn a lot by going to those places. It was a really challenging environment, and to have come through it was brilliant from the point of view of becoming a better player.

“Hopefully, that will benefit me in the future, and benefit Middlesbrough as well. It was a nice reward for working hard and trying to do the right things. It’s something that I love doing, and it’s a real honour to be able to play for my country. It was a fantastic thing to be a part of.”