Leicester City boss reveals plans for Admiral Muskwe
LEICESTER City manager Brendan Rodgers has ruled out the possibility of promoting Admiral Muskwe to the English Premier League club’s senior team this season after revealing that the promising Zimbabwe international will be loaned out ahead of the forthcoming 2020/21 season.
The 22-year-old Harare-born forward, who has been at Leicester City since the age of nine, spent the second half of last season at the then English League Two side Swindon Town.
Muskwe gained valuable first team experience during his loan spell with the League Two champions, making five appearances before the campaign was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
After returning to his parent club ahead of the new campaign, Muskwe has been training with the Leicester City first team and featured in two pre-season friendlies against Birmingham and Sheffield Wednesday last week, along with other nine Under-23s players.
Muskwe was one of the 10 Leicester Under-23s players, who were named in the squad for the goalless draw with Sheffield Wednesday along with defenders Vontae Daley-Campbell, Darnell Johnson, Josh Knight and Luke Thomas, midfielders Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Sidnei Tavares, Khanya Leshabela, and forwards Josh Eppiah and George Hirst.
Despite the opportunities in pre-season matches, chances of Muskwe making a breakthrough into the Leicester first team this season are slim.
Rodgers revealed that although he has been impressed with the young players’ approach to training and matches, they would head out on loan to Championship and League One clubs.
“These guys are not 17, 18, a lot of them are 20 to 22, so they’re at a good age,” Rodgers told LCFC TV.
“They’ve absolutely been superb since they’ve come in. Their attitude has been great. "They’ve shown respect, but they’ve played with no fear and looked to try to impress.
“There’s one or two like Sidnei who are younger than the others, he’s come in and done very well also.
“They’re a talented young bunch. Some of them will probably end up going out to Championship clubs and League One clubs to continue with their development as well.”
Muskwe represented the England national team at Under-17 level before switching allegiance to his country of birth at senior level.
He has since earned four caps with the Warriors since making his senior international debut in a 1-0 defeat to Lesotho in a friendly match three years ago and is tipped to play an important role for Zimbabwe in the future.
Admiral’s twin sister Adelaide, who plays for the English Netball Super League side Severn Stars, was part of Zimbabwe’s netball team at last year’s World Cup in Liverpool.