London: Manchester United's 15-year-old prodigy JJ Gabriel has formally requested to leave the Premier League club, according to British media reports on Tuesday.

The highly rated forward, who trained with Michael Carrick's senior side prior to making his first senior appearance as a substitute in last month's friendly against Atletico Madrid, was slated to make his competitive debut in Wednesday's League Cup third-round clash against Brighton at Old Trafford.

The exit request comes shortly after Gabriel scored a dramatic hat-trick on his UEFA Youth League debut, leading United to a 5-0 victory over Sabah.

Reflecting on the player's development following that match, coach Adam Lawrence praised the support system surrounding the youngster, stating:

"JJ is surrounded by people that really, really believe in him from the top of the club right the way through."

"He's been at the club for so long. He's got real good relationships with the players, with the staff, so I think over the course of time obviously that helps as well."

"At the moment, just in terms of his game, his games programme, his training programme, it's about making sure that he's getting the right exposure across different levels."

Gabriel, who turns 16 in October, boasts a massive social media following of 844,000 on Instagram, though all posts were recently deleted from his account. Despite his request to depart, Manchester United remain hopeful of persuading the young talent to stay at Old Trafford. (AFP)