Bristol City to weigh up loan for 20-year-old ahead of Alex Scott transfer

Bristol City assistant manager Curtis Fleming believes that Ayman Benarous could benefit from a loan move.

Benarous has suffered back-to-back anterior cruciate ligament injuries, and has not played a competitive match for the Robins since April 2022. He's highly rated by those at the club, and whilst the likes of Sam Bell and Tommy Conway have gone on to excel, he's had to watch from the sidelines and rehabilitate.

The 20-year-old was enjoying a breakout campaign in 2021/22 and made 12 appearances in total before suffering his first ACL injury in preparation of their final game of the campaign. He had been making positive progress to return for last season but in December, Benarous suffered the same injury, which meant an entire campaign of no competitive football.

Benarous has since returned to action, and played two games for the U21's in recent weeks, but a move to a lower league club could be beneficial to him as he bids to rebuild his fitness. Assistant manager Fleming was overseeing the session in which Benarous suffered his setback, and admitted it made him emotional.

When asked if a temporary move away could benefit his recovery, Fleming said: "Yeah but I think you’ve got to be careful when we do it. You have to make sure he’s 100% before he goes anywhere. There’s no point in rushing the lad.

"We know his ability, we know what he has got, he’s very very unlucky. I was here and I was doing the session in fact when he got his second ACL injury. It was heartbreaking to be fair, I don’t really get emotional but I was gutted for him.

"I was emotional that day because it was the last kick of the training session, he’s had a hard battle back."

Ideally a move to a League One, or an ambitious League Two club could be what Benarous needs. A good fit would be a move to Cheltenham Town who are managed by Wade Elliott, or Forest Green Rovers who are nearby. Benarous is unlikely to be completely match fit this month however, and it may be he rebuilds his fitness with the U21's and then departs for competitive football in January.

Fleming added: "Mentally he’s played a South African team here last week, he was great and he wasn’t jumping out of anything. We were cringing when there was tackles going in please please don’t get injured again.

"We’ll be very very careful with him and we will build him. When he’s ready he will go out, but he’s got a big future to play for Bristol City hasn’t he? We all know his ability and what he brings to the table but let’s not rush the kid. He’s shown some amount of resilience to get back to where he is."