‘Special talent’ Sammy Braybrooke has been backed to achieve ‘really big things’ in his career.

The 21-year-old is on loan at Chesterfield from Leicester City for the rest of the season after joining in January. He spent the first-half of the campaign on loan at Newport County and he impressed in a struggling team.

And it has not taken long for the central midfielder to become a fan favourite already, with his performances already earning him man of the match awards. He caught the eye while playing against Town for Newport, earlier this season in a game Paul Cook’s men won 4-1, but it has been revealed that they were already aware of him before that.

Blues coach Kieron Dyer, who knows a thing or two about central midfielder having been capped 33 times by England and having played hundreds of games in the Premier League, is predicting a bright future for him.

“Special player,” Kieron Dyer told the DT. “He was on radar last season. Fair play to Neil (Hornby), head of recruitment. After we played Newport at home and won 4-1, what stuck out to me what was how brave he was, even though they were 4-1 he always wanted the ball. He very rarely gave the ball away. I watched a lot of Newport games, I probably watched about nine Newport games, and every game I watched he was the best player on the pitch. And this was a team who was bottom of the league. He was fantastic.

“He is slight but his off-the-the ball stuff, getting second balls, getting pressure on the ball, he does that very well. He is a special talent so when we got him I was really excited to work with him.

“There are still elements to his game that he needs to improve. He still needs to scan a lot more, check his surroundings. He has added to our squad and our fans are getting glimpses of what we see everyday in training.

"He is a top, top player and I feel he can go on to really big things in his career. He wants to learn, he wants to listen. You don’t play for all the England age groups if you haven’t got ability.”

Braybrooke has mainly been used as a sitting midfielder but he has also been deployed further forward as a number 10 and Dyer believes he can do both roles depending on the opposition.

He added: "He is so good on the ball so if you are a team who wants to build attacks, when he is lower he gets us ticking in that way. And then our flair players are there for finishing the attacks. Against Gillingham, he showed elements of that final pass, he put Tom Pearce in for a chance, he did a lovely turn, so he can play as a 10, it just depends how we see him, how we want to use him and what different games bring. He is a six and a 10 in my eyes, or even an eight, he is that talented.”