THERE are a number of exciting Scottish Premiership prospects that are worth getting excited about. With that in mind, we'll be revealing our top 10 players under 21 currently plying their trade in the top flight. In order to be considered, players have to be based in Scotland permanently and have to have a significant number of minutes under their belts this season. The likes of Karamoko Dembele at Celtic or Rangers' Dapo Mebude might go on to become stars, but it's still a little too early to say for sure. Without any further ado, here's our number 8...

RYAN Porteous enjoyed a fantastic start to the 2018/19 season and quickly established himself as one of Hibernian's key players in defence. A knee injury in Januray ruled the 20-year-old out for the remainder of the campaign but one would expect the youth academy graduate to march staright back into the starting XI next season.

READ MORE: The top 10 Premiership youngsters | 9: Oli Shaw

Porteous is one of the best headers of the ball in the league, and has the sixth-highest success rate at these challenges of any player under 23 in the Premiership, only slightly behind Scott McKenna and ahead of John Souttar. The young centre back is equally impressive in the tackle, winning 28.79% of his defensive duels. That might not sound like much but to put that in context, that is an identical figure to Celtic's Kris Ajer.

If Porteous can recapture his form on his return to the Hibs first team, then it is surely only a matter of time before we see him in the Scotland team.