- Kasey McAteer joined Sky Bet League 2 AFC Wimbledon on loan this week
- The young midfielder will spend the rest of the season in south London
- He has played twice for Leicester City’s first team in 2022/23
- City’s Development Squad has provided 14 further appearances
The 21-year-old sealed a temporary switch to the Sky Bet League 2 outfit on Tuesday evening and will now spend the rest of the campaign at the Cherry Red Records Stadium, having completed a similar loan at promotion-winning Forest Green Rovers last term.
Involved in the last three Premier League matchday squads, as well as training with the first team on a regular basis, the versatile midfielder has two senior Leicester City appearances to his name across the first half of 2022/23, after debuting last season.
“It's been brilliant,” the Northampton-born youngster commented, discussing his recent journey at the Club. “Day in, day out with the senior pros, you learn things, obviously, because they are top professionals. It's been a really good experience to be up there with them.
“We'll see what the rest of the season can hold for me. Every day I'm just going to give it my all. That’s all I can do – continue to listen and learn and hopefully that can take me to where I want to be in the future.”
The Academy graduate’s last outing in a Leicester shirt came for the Development Squad, starting Monday’s Premier League 2 Division 1 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion Under-21s at the AMEX Elite Football Performance Centre – his first 90 minutes since October.
“Match fitness is always key,” he explained. “You know, it's good to go out there and play. It's been a while since I had a full 90 minutes, so I enjoyed it, but on a better day we would get the win.”
The travelling Foxes took a first-half lead courtesy of Sammy Braybrooke’s 38th-minute goal but were on the end of a quick-fire comeback from the south coast outfit, with Andrew Moran’s brace helping to secure a 3-1 triumph for the Seagulls.
“From our perspective, I think it's not good enough from start to finish,” McAteer admitted. “Though in the first half I think we had quite a few good chances.
“Obviously, Sammy [Braybrooke] has put one away in the top corner from a free-kick, but going into the second half, I think we just we let it slip and good teams punish you and I think that's what we got today.
“I think you can see before half-time, it's always a bad thing, especially when I think it was an own goal from JT (Tawanda Maswanhise), which is a bit annoying as well, especially from a set piece and going into half-time.
“So, it's annoying, and a bit of a kick in the teeth, but you have to take it and come back up better [in the] second half, and we didn't do that and we got punished for it. Both quick [goals] after one another, it's just hard to take and after that you feel a bit deflated.
“The team spirit goes down a little bit, but that's no excuse. I mean, we have to fight and we didn't do that. Before the game, we said about Celtic last week, the boys deserved more than a draw. We were coming here to win and take the three points. We had a good start, but at the end of the day, it wasn't good enough.”