Stoke City sanction defender exit on loan
Freddie Anderson is moving to Cork City on loan for the whole of the League of Ireland Premier Division season.
The 18-year-old centre-back has just returned from a training camp with United States under-20s, for whom he qualifies through his mum. He had been on standby for England under-19s earlier this season - and his dad Viv Anderson is a former England international, as well as teammate of Mark Robins at Manchester United.
It continues a big few months for the big defender, who scored when he made his Stoke first team debut in a Carabao Cup win at Carlisle in August. He has captained the under-21s too.
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Cork start their season on February 14 at home against Galway United, having won promotion from the First Division as champions last year. The season runs until November.
Stoke have had a lot of success with academy graduates Tommy Simkin and Nathan Lowe joining Walsall on loan this term, with Lowe being recalled this month to play for Robins. There is also interest in other young players in the final couple of weeks of the transfer window.
Anderson said earlier this season: “My dad was one of the first people to tell me after I’d scored that I hadn’t cracked it. ‘You’ve played one game and you’ve done well but you’ve not cracked it until you’ve played 100 league games.’ They definitely keep me grounded.”
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