Former Sunderland academy star Carl Lawson has offered advice to Chris Rigg following his first-team breakthrough.
Chris Rigg made his Sunderland debut in an FA Cup win over Shrewsbury Town in January 2023, then went onto score his first goal against Crewe Alexandra seven months later.
After Sunderland batted off interest from the Premier League, the midfielder signed his first professional contract with the Black Cats and went onto make his Championship debut against Southampton – scoring their fifth goal.
Rigg struggled for regular minutes after that, but looks to have wormed his way back into the first team picture in recent weeks. The 16-year-old featured for 25 minutes against Plymouth Argyle and looks likely to earn himself more regular appearances in the second half of the campaign.
With huge potential ahead of him, Carl Lawson – whose career was hampered by injuries – has now sent him a message in a bid to avoid him getting ‘ruined’.
Speaking to Sunderland Echo, Lawson said: “It is a lot to take at that age.
“I think there are talents that can be ruined at an early age. To go off subject but look at the darts, everyone is raving about Luke Littler because he is so young and that can sometimes go the wrong way if there’s too much hype.
“You have to leave them to get on with business and when they’re at the club they’ll know what business to get on with. Hopefully, when he gets on the pitch, that is when he will do his talking.
“Advice-wise, being in this position at a young age, you just have to keep yourself grounded and just get in there and work work work every day and soak up stuff from the players that are working around you, all those players who have made all those appearances whether it be Premier League, Championship or League One or League Two.
“He has to take as much advice as possible, which I know players will if they’re in a good club and a good dressing room. Soak as much information up as you can and really put that work in on the training pitch… let’s call it the ‘unseen hours’.”
Is Chris Rigg heading in the right direction?
It may well be that he has sensible family and friends talking in his ear or perhaps he is just very mature for his age, but Chris Rigg certainly seems very level-headed and won’t be making any rash decisions despite his age.
There is very high expectations of the teenager and he knows it, but I think himself and the club have handled him very well recently.
Perhaps if we had continued not to play him all season then we could well have seen him take up one of those bigger opportunities that he turned down in the summer, but he surely sees a path into regular first team football now and that is all that he really wants.
We have had plenty of young players come through and thrive, and we have worked with them really well. While Rigg is much younger than most, the backroom staff should know exactly how to handle a situation like his.