When Manchester City sent James McAtee on loan for the season at Championship side Sheffield United, they did so for a few reasons.
One was that McAtee was desperate to play regular first-team football, even if City and Pep Guardiola would have preferred him to stay at the club and train regularly with the squad. Another was that City identified the Sheffield club as a team that a style of football that would help aid McAtee's development - there would be no point sending a young City player to a team that practices 'route one' style football.
It's safe to assume that they did not send him to the Championship to bare the brunt of reckless tackles, but that is exactly what happened on Tuesday night.
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McAtee came on as a first-half substitute during the Blades' 1-0 win at Bristol City on Tuesday, a result that moved them up to third place in the Championship table. As his side played out the final few minutes of injury time, the 20-year-old collected the ball in midfield before he was caught by a horror challenge from Bristol City defender George Tanner.
Tanner - a product of Manchester United's academy - lunged into a knee-high two-footed challenge that caused McAtee to do a summersault in mid-air, before a scuffle broke out. Tanner was shown a straight red card for the wild challenge, one that could have seriously injured McAtee.
The City loannee was lucky not to walk away largely unscathed, but he still managed to see the funny side of the incident.
On Wednesday morning McAtee published a photo of the tackle on his Instagram page with the caption 'some tackle that' and a laughing face emoji. Tommy Doyle, another City youngster on loan at Sheffield United, replied to the post with a laughing face and skull emoji.
When asked about the incident after the match, Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom said: "I’m not sure how many red cards the challenge at the end was worth. But I think James McAtee’s speed played a part and I don’t believe there was any intent to hurt our player."
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