Kone working with French-speaking player-coach Rowe

Manchester United player-coach Tommy Rowe is taking French lessons to help smooth Sekou Kone's path into the first-team.

Rowe started his career as an academy player at United and went on to make over 600 professional appearances, primarily for Peterborough and Doncaster, before joining the Old Trafford outfit last summer as a player-coach, working with their junior teams.

He was on the bench during last night's Premier League 2 play-off victory over Everton and he took particular satisfaction in Kone's contribution.

The Mali youth international set up Tyler Fletcher for Manchester United's third goal, before scoring a fine fourth in their 4-2 win.

After recovering from an injury sustained in an EFL Trophy match against Huddersfield in November, Kone has started to make the strides anticipated on his arrival from Africa.

And Under-21s coach Travis Binnion says Tommy Rowe's linguistic contribution should not be overlooked. "Tommy has been brilliant with him," Binnion said.

"He must have been on holiday to the south of France with how his French is coming on. He will sit in Sekou's English lessons just so he can pick it up.

"They do analysis and translate it through the language tutor.

"Sekou has a long way to go. He can get through three games in a week now for us, but he wouldn't be able to do that at first-team level because he's not quite there yet. His decision-making will make that easier for him, physically.

"It is a long-term project with him, but his ability is there for all to see."