Middlesbrough intend to let Josh Coburn see out the season at Bristol Rovers rather than recall the striker in January, Kieran Scott has confirmed.

Coburn is impressing in League One, where he's scored five goals for Rovers, his form leading manager Joey Barton to recently claim he'll go on and play for England in the future.

Barton is desperate to keep Coburn into the second half of the season, with Boro having the option to recall the 20-year-old back to the Riverside in January.

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But the loan move is playing out exactly as Boro hoped and, unless there's a dramatic change of heart in the next few weeks, Coburn will stay with Rovers until the summer, as head of football Scott confirmed when speaking to the Middlesbrough Supporters Forum at a recent meeting.

He said: "The plan is not to bring Josh back.

"It doesn’t help the player to come back and not play, especially when he is playing now. He has to keep playing and doing well.

"There is still a lot of development needed, there is no point in bringing him back to sit on the bench then play for 10 or 15 minutes each week like he did that last year. He needs to play 30/40 games, stay fit. It’s a good environment for him to be in as Joey is playing him every week."

Boro are looking to sign a striker in January, with Sunderland's Ross Stewart believed to be one of the frontmen on the club's radar.

Stewart's current contract expires at the end of this season and although the Black Cats have the option to extend by another year, they want the 26-year-old to sign a new long-term deal.

On the subject of contracts, Chuba Akpom's initial Boro deal, signed when he joined the club, expires at the end of this season but an option to extend that by 12 months has already been activated.

Scott said: "He does have another year on his contract.

"He has been handled differently and looks like a different player."

While Akpom has played his way back into the Boro first team fold this season, Martin Payero faces an uphill battle to do the same in the future.

He's on loan at Boca Juniors, who have the option of making that switch permanent.

Scott said: "Martin was brought in before my time here.

"He has gone out on loan, and they do have an option to buy him which they may take up.

"Their season works differently to ours, so their option to buy comes in May or June."