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Jurgen Klopp says he will run the rule over Conor Bradley in pre-season at Liverpool before deciding whether to send him back out on loan.
The Northern Ireland international has been a huge hit at Wanderers, scoring seven times in 49 starts, and helping the club lift the Papa Johns Trophy at Wembley.
The 19-year-old will remain with the Whites until the end of this season and would be available for the play-offs, if the club get there.
Ian Evatt wants Bradley back next season but said earlier this year that he could not see the young defender returning to play in League One.
Reds boss Klopp has stayed in touch with Bradley and all his other loanees via a WhatsApp group and his coaching staff have made regular checks throughout the season at Lostock.
"The plan at the moment is to bring him back and keep him, but we will see," he said.
"Bring him back, go in the pre-season and then enjoy the steps he made, then we will decide together what we are doing from that moment on."
Trent Alexander-Arnold has held down the right-back berth at Anfield in recent years but Klopp has recently experimented with him in midfield and has reportedly been weighing up a move for competition in the summer.
Bradley has shown he can handle international level with Northern Ireland, where he has 12 caps, and will head back to Liverpool in high spirits after a positive spell with the Whites.
"I think it's a confidence boost when you are invited and playing for your country, of course that is great but it is not that often it happens," the Liverpool boss told the BBC.
"I think it gives you a better feeling about yourself if you get picked for your country. I never had that situation so I cannot exactly tell you how it feels, but I am pretty sure it is very special and it is a super-positive moment for him.
"We knew what we had in our hands when he was here, but for young boys there must be an opportunity to make the next step with playing and that was now a typical win-win situation: it was good for us, good for him and good for the club and I liked it a lot.
"Everybody speaks positively about him. I think one and a half years ago only a few football nerds would have known about him and now everybody knows him. That's cool and that's the first step.
"He is our boy, which I like a lot. A super mentality, which is extremely helpful, and all the rest will come - and we are all pretty sure about that. So, that's it.
"Conor will be our player, but how it is in that age group, we have to see if it makes more sense for him going on loan after pre-season or not. We will decide that then and not now."
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