Stevenage have signed teenage Aston Villa midfielder Henry Cowans on loan until January.

The 19-year-old joins Darren Sarll’s squad after it was confirmed Tom Conlan will be out of action for up to nine months after suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury on Saturday.

Cowans, is the son of Villa legend Gordon, and is a regular in the Championship side’s U23 squad.

Of the new addition, Stevenage boss Sarll said: “Henry is a player that we have identified in U21 games, Glen [Roeder] andI saw him twice this year and were very impressed with his technical ability [and] impressed with the way he managed the ball.

“As always in football when one door shuts another one has opened, he has those Tom Conlon-type traits and with Tom Conlon stepping out of the scene for a while it has ended up being a decent time to bring Henry in.”

Sarll felt an extra body in midfield was needed in his squad.

“He’ll be great for us and he’ll give us a bit more cover and support, a little bit more athleticism because we have got Charlie [Lee] and Michael [Tonge] who are 30 and 33 respectively.

“Dale Gorman has a lot of international duty commitments coming up so we needed to provide the cover that Dale has also been providing Charlie and Michael.

“Steve [Schumacher] is not fully back, it has been a bit of a weird conundrum, a bit of a puzzle, in terms of trying to make sure we give the two central midfield players enough rest and recovery and game time and rotating them to get the best out of them.

“Henry just comes into that pile, but he will acquit himself well because he’s a very talented young man.”