Bursik Returns to AFC Wimbledon on Loan

A familiar face is back at Plough Lane. AFC Wimbledon have brought in goalkeeper Joe Bursik on loan from Championship side Portsmouth for the rest of the season.

For Bursik, 26, it is more than just another move. He first pulled on a Wimbledon shirt as an eight-year-old in the academy, before leaving for Stoke City at 16 to chase a professional breakthrough. Now he returns as a seasoned keeper, with a career’s worth of experience behind him.

His most convincing spell to date came at Stoke, where he kept seven clean sheets in 16 Championship appearances during the 2020-21 campaign. That form underpinned a series of loans that hardened him across the divisions, with stints at Telford, Accrington, Doncaster and Peterborough sharpening his game.

Portsmouth signed him in September 2025, and he has since made 10 league appearances for Pompey. He also started their FA Cup third-round tie against Arsenal at Fratton Park, a bruising 4-1 defeat but a high-profile stage all the same.

Now the journey loops back to south-west London. Wimbledon get a goalkeeper who knows the club, knows the grind, and arrives with something to prove in the months ahead.