Hansen joined Boro in a summer move from NEC Nijmegen, signing for around £3.5m, but his first few months on Teesside have not really gone to plan.
The 23-year-old has made just three senior starts, the most recent of which came at the end of November, and was an 86th-minute substitute in last weekend’s FA Cup third-round defeat at Fulham.
In the wake of the game at Craven Cottage, a post to his Instagram account featured a black-and-white picture of Hansen in action accompanied by the word ‘Free’. Hansen also responded positively to a TikTok comment that featured the hashtag ‘FreeSonna’.
There has been speculation suggesting the Curacao international could leave on loan this month, but Hellberg has not felt the need to discuss Hansen’s social media activity with him and is adamant the winger remains as committed as ever despite his lack of match minutes.
“I saw that [the social media post],” said the Boro head coach. “Sometimes, you do lots of things on social media. I don’t think Sontje meant exactly what some thought of that situation.
“I don’t make a big thing of that. He has trained very well [yesterday]. He has been training well and we had a good conversation together. I’ve had conversations with him ever since I arrived.
“He played the first game, then got a bit sick, but now he is training well again. It is more important him taking his chances when he gets them – then we will see what we will do.”
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Hansen faces increased competition in Boro’s attacking positions following the recent arrival of Leo Castledine in a £1m move from Chelsea.
Castledine could go straight into the starting side at West Brom this evening, with his arrival likely to further restrict the chances of Hansen, Sverre Nypan and Delano Burgzorg, all of whom have struggled for minutes anyway in the first half of the season.
At least one attacking-midfield exit feels inevitable this month, although Hellberg insists he is not concerned at the number of forward players currently featuring in the first-team group.
“I enjoy training everyone who is here,” he said. “It’s not a problem for me to have 30 players – I like players, I like to work with them, so it’s not a problem.
“Of course, you have to think about club structure, who is going to play and where they are going to play. It might be that when you look at that, you see a player who is important for the long term, but who might benefit from being loaned out.
“There is always a chance something like that could happen, but it is not really something I am thinking about. I am just training with everyone and, for me, they are good lads who are all working very hard.
“We will see what happens. Depending on what the club wants, maybe someone will go on loan or maybe we will sell someone. I don’t know. But from my point of view, having the players here is not a problem.”
Manchester City could have a say over what happens with Nypan, with the Premier League club understood to have grown concerned over their summer signing’s lack of involvement under Hellberg.
Nypan’s last start came back in October – he has only made three senior starts all season – but Hellberg feels any mounting frustration over the loanee’s lack of involvement is only natural.
“Doesn’t everyone want to play more? If I could have played against Fulham, I would like to have played in that game too,” he said. “It’s the same for everyone. Everyone wants to play as much as possible, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
“There’s a few that have played every minute, and I’m sure they are happy, but I’m also sure that everyone else will have wanted to play more. The players want to play, and if they are loan players, their club will want them to play as much as possible.
“But there’s so much more around that that is important – how they are acting when they are not playing, how can we help them in that situation? I think everyone that trains with us can see we are doing as much as we can to help them develop as much as possible. But it is only ten spots and a goalkeeper – you cannot do anything about that.
“I think the environment we create here and how we work and help the players, the players feel that. It is my choice who I put on the pitch, but as long as we are doing all we can to help the players develop, I think they respect that. They don’t always agree with the decision, but it’s a very good group to work with.”