COLCHESTER United left-back Al-Amin Kazeem has joined SSE Airtricity League of Ireland premier division side Galway United on loan until the end of June.

The 21-year-old will be looking to get plenty of game time with the Irish club, who won promotion to the top division last season.

Kazeem has made 14 league and cup first-team appearances for Colchester so far this season but has experienced something of a frustrating campaign so far, having been hindered by injury.

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The former Maldon and Tiptree loanee, whose last senior Colchester appearance was against AFC Wimbledon last December, missed three months of the season due to an ankle injury.

Kazeem told the Galway website: "Can’t wait to get started here, I had a 30/40 minute call with the manager and we talked about the play style and how it’d suit me, the team is very attack minded and like to go forward quick and I think it will be a good match."

 

Kazeem, who has played 40 times for the U's since being handed his senior debut by Wayne Brown in August 2022, is in line to play in Galway's curtain-raiser against St Pat's Athletic, on February 16.

Colchester boss Danny Cowley now has plenty of options in his squad, following five new signings in the transfer window.

Cowley hinted last week he would be prepared to allow young players leave Colchester on loan, after boosting his squad with new faces.

Gazette:

“We do have numbers now,” added Cowley.

“We had 22 outfield players training today but we also have some really good young players who we also need to find the right pathway for and I’m really conscious of this.

“With our squad, it’s always been lean and mean and we always like competition for places because we think that drives the standards.

“You never want to be the third player in line; you want to be the first in line and in the starting XI but if you’re not, you’re the next one in line and you see the opportunity.

“Sometimes when you’re third or fourth in line, then that can be really hard for the player so when that moment happens, particularly if we think that’s a young player, we might decide to make a long-term plan for them.

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“This is really important to me, because how does this football club have real success – to do that, we’ve got to develop our young players and that comes from the academy, that comes from the first team and absolutely, we try our best to give them outstanding training every single day but they also need to be part of a competitive games programme.

“There’s a couple of young players who I would love to keep in and around us and in our squad but I might just make a really good decision for their future by getting them out on loan and getting them some important minutes because sometimes, the game teaches us.”