MIDDLESBROUGH head coach AITOR Karanka has revealed on loan midfielder Milos Veljkovic will get a chance to impress soon.

The 19-year-old joined from Tottenham earlier this month but so far he has been restricted to bench duty and is yet to make an appearance for Middlesbrough.

With Grant Leadbitter, Adam Clayton and Dean Whitehead in the squad, Veljkovic has plenty of competition, but the Boro boss insists it is only a matter of time before the Serbian Under-21 international get his opportunity.

“I hope I can give him a chance soon,” Karanka said. “He is a young lad and he is training very well, but it is difficult when you arrive in a team where all the players are playing well.

“It is hard to give him an opportunity when that is the case, but I told him if he keeps going in the same way the chances will appear for him. He is capable of playing in this team.”

The Boro head coach has already been impressed with Ryan Fredericks’ contribution following his loan move from White Hart Lane, and the Spaniard hopes Veljkovic can have a similar impact.

He said: “I said to him that Ryan (Fredericks) and Ken (Omeruo) are good examples because both of them didn’t play at the beginning and when they got their chances they both took them and kept playing in the first 11.”

The Teessiders go into Saturday trip to Rotherham two points of the top of the Championship.

Having gone the whole of September and half of October unbeaten, Karanka’s men have failed to win their last two games against Wolves and Watford, but Grant Leadbitter believes the team is still in a great position to challenge for promotion.

“We’re doing OK,” said Leadbitter, who is available again after serving a one-match suspension for picking up five bookings.

“A couple of points off top is a nice position to be in. We could have had more points on the board if you want to be critical, but we’re happy where we are and we’ll keep trying to win games.

“I think we played one of the better teams in the division in Watford on Saturday.

“We maybe could’ve put the game to bed in the first half but Watford are a good team and watching the game I think we did really well. We’ll take every point and move on.

“I think we had the better chances, but it was two good teams and a good watch, we need to keep the board ticking over.”

Middlesbrough have been in a similar position before when Tony Mowbray’s men were top of the Championship going into New Year in 2013.

However, a collapse in the second half of the season meant Boro finished way off the top six and having been part of that squad Leadbitter admits he is taking nothing for granted.

He said: “I think we are where this club expects to be. We have to get back into the Premier League but no one has got to get carried away.

“I’ve been top of this league on New Year’s Day and we’ve struggled in the second half of the season so take nothing for granted and take one game at a time – we’ve got a tough game coming up against Rotherham on Saturday.

“I think there’s a lot of good teams in this division and you’ve got to turn up every game to succeed. If you don’t do that – as proved when we went to Wolves last week – you will come away with nothing.”