SEAN Dyche won’t be throwing teenager Aiden O’Neill into the Premier League firing line from the start tomorrow after admitting it is too soon for the midfielder.

The 18-year-old Aussie came off the bench at Southampton on Sunday for his third substitute appearance of the season in the top flight, replacing the injured Steven Defour.

But he won’t be the man called on to stand in for the Belgium midfielder when Everton visit Turf Moor.

Defour has been ruled out with a hamstring injury, although scans have shown it to be a ‘straightforward’ strain and Burnley are hopeful he won’t be absent for too long.

While O’Neill, who only turned 18 in July, has earned his chance from the bench this term, Dyche is reluctant to hand him a first start at this stage of his development, which could open the way for Scott Arfield to come in for Defour, although the Clarets chief also has options to change the shape by including James Tarkowski or Patrick Bamford.

“I don’t think he is yet (ready to start in the Premier League),” Dyche said of O’Neill, who started the EFL Cup defeat to Accrington Stanley.

“We’ve given him a taste of it, I think that’s important, he’s still learning, he’s 18 and it’s a big step for anyone, playing Premier League football, but definitely for an 18-year-old.

“But the fact he’s been around it and earned his spurs - if you’d seen how he’s trained and played in pre-season, he’s earned the right.

“We don’t put people on the bench for no reason, but I’m sure he’s not ready to start yet, unless we had extreme injuries or whatever.”

O’Neill came on for Defour five minutes before the break at St Mary’s for his longest taste of Premier League football so far.

He made his first appearance in the final minute in the win over Liverpool, before playing over an hour in the 3-0 defeat at Chelsea.

And Dyche is happy to let the youngster develop at his own rate.

“It’s good sitting around learning, getting a taste of it here and there, being with the group, and we’re not over-coaching him, we’re letting him make sense of it all,” said the Burnley boss.

“There’s not loads of work going on, I have a handle on how young players need to work, and sometimes they just need to make sense of it all, there’s enough going on in his head without us over-coaching him.

“But we felt it was appropriate on Sunday to get some game time.

“It was a tough game to come on in, but we felt he had the attributes to affect it. That didn’t happen, but it didn’t work for the team.”

Dyche admits knowing when to blood a promising youngster into the first team is a difficult decision to get right, but he is happy with O’Neill’s progress so far.

“I remember giving Britt Assombalonga his debut at Watford, but it was too early,” he said.

“I got that wrong, we left it a month and he played again and did better, but it was still early.

“He went on loan, scored goals, and he came back, I’d got the sack, but he’s been on an upward curve since, although he’s had the injuries.

“It’s not always perfect, and we do get it wrong sometimes, but Aiden has handled it pretty well so far, he has a stable mindset for a young player.”

Of Defour’s hamstring injury Dyche added: “We’re pleased with it. Hamstrings can be quite serious at times so we’re not expecting a huge layoff, but he won’t be ready for this week and we’ll take it from there.

“Different people have different healing rates, Steven is new to us so we don’t know about that type of thing but we’re hoping it’s pretty straightforward.”