Leicester City loanee to miss 'one of biggest games of his career' and chance to make history

Leicester City loanee Paul Appiah will miss out on the chance to make history after he was suspended for Maidstone United’s FA Cup clash at Coventry.

Centre-back Appiah was shown a red card for two bookable offences as Maidstone lost to Aveley in the National League South on Monday in their final match before taking on the Sky Blues in a momentous FA Cup tie next week. That red card means Appiah will be banned for the game.

Manager George Elokobi is “gutted” that Appiah will “miss one of the biggest games of his career”. The 21-year-old has played in the past three rounds as Maidstone produced three upsets to beat Barrow, Stevenage and then City’s Championship promotion rivals Ipswich to become the lowest-ranked side to make the last 16 since 1977-78.

The sixth-tier outfit are now aiming to become just the second non-league team in more than 100 years to make the quarter-finals, following in the footsteps of Lincoln in 2016-17. They take on City’s neighbours Coventry live on ITV on Monday night, but Appiah won’t be playing.

Elokobi told KentOnline after Appiah’s red card on Monday: “At half-time, I thought: ‘Should I take him off or should I trust him as a young player?’ We have to learn from this and he has to learn from this experience. That’s part of his journey and these things do happen.

“I’m gutted for him that he’s going to miss one of the biggest games of his career now. What can we do? Raphe Brown missed the last round at Ipswich for a similar thing. My job is to trust my players, and I trust them 100 per cent. It’s all part of their learning curve.”

Appiah joined City from Aston Villa’s academy in 2022 and has played 25 matches across Premier League 2 and the EFL Trophy since joining. He started this season with City’s development squad before moving to Maidstone at the end of November for an initial one-month loan that has since been extended.

How would you like to see City approach their FA Cup tie at Bournemouth? Strongest team or lots of changes? Let us know in the comments section below.