Everton's James Vaughan joins Middlesbrough on loan

David Moyes has given the green light to Middlesbrough's bid to land young striker James Vaughan on loan.

The north east club have watched Vaughan several times in recent weeks, the latest a reserve team outing against Hull on Monday night.

The England under-21 international played 90 minutes after his latest comeback from injury, but his Everton boss Moyes believes he is still some distance from full match fitness.

And now the Goodison manager is ready to let Boro take his exciting young prospect on loan, to offer him more chances of plating.

"We think it would benefit him to get some games under his belt. We've not been able to do that for the boy, and he's missed a lot of football so we wouldn't be opposed to a loan," Moyes explained yesterday.

Vaughan, now 21, made his name back in 2005 when he became the club's then youngster scorer at 16 years and 360 days.

But he has endured a terrible run of luck with severe injury, the latest of which forced him out of the England Under-21 squad a week ago.

Meanwhile, skipper Phil Neville is hopeful he won't require surgery on the knee ligament injury that saw him carried off at Fulham on Sunday.

Neville is facing an absence until the new year with the serious problem, but doctors have suggested that he won't necessarily have to go under the knife.