Lofthouse 'fell out of love' with football as a teenager

The wing-back, on loan from Barnsley, nearly walked away from the game when he was younger

Kyran Lofthouse nearly walked away from football as a 14-year-old when he admitted he fell out of love with the game.

The 23-year-old, on loan at MK Dons from Barnsley, signed up with Reading's academy when he was just eight, and spent the next six years with the Royals. But he said the heavy schedule as he grew up made football feel more like a job than a hobby at that age, and it impacted on him.

So much so, Lofthouse asked to leave the Reading setup, preferring to play football socially with his friends rather than in a professional environment. Two years later, he was back in the game with Oxford United after he approached them for a trial, but speaking on the Burst On The Scene podcast, he said time away helped him rediscover his love for the game, plus more.

"I don't think it has made too much of an impact," he said. "It's hard to know until you're of that age anyway. I think I gained more in my motivation to play than I lost in the technical side by being in an academy. There was never a lack of ability, I'd just lost my love for football, and I got that back plus more. That's helped me way more.

"It's hard to work out who is going to be any good when you're 11 or 12. But I got to 14, and I decided to leave of my own accord. I wasn't enjoying it any more, I love the love for it, and I don't think being in that environment from a young age helped. I was doing well up to a point, but I was smaller than a lot of the others, I had a few growth injuries, and I just remember thinking it was too much for me. It was good to be in that environment but I decided to come away from football for a good couple of years.

"I was still playing, but Sunday league with my mates. We were all pretty decent! It helped me find the enjoyment in football again. I was playing, but I was playing basketball too, and even thinking about pursuing that instead."

Now at Dons on loan, Lofthouse urged youngsters in a similar position as he was not to get too weighed down with the pressures of academy life, adding: "I'd tell them to make sure you enjoy it. There is a lot of money in academies now, but you have to find enjoyment in it. There is more to life, you still have to find time for other things.

"You can't let it bog you down at that age when it's not your career or a job. You have to do something you enjoy, and that's so important."