Player suddenly slows down after knocking the ball forward while sprinting

I’ve noticed a frustrating issue with sprinting and knocking the ball forward into open space in FC 27.

Sometimes, when I’m already sprinting at full speed and knock the ball forward to run onto it, my player suddenly slows down almost to a complete stop instead of continuing the sprint. It looks and feels like the player gets stuck or “bogged down” for a moment. After that, the player starts accelerating again, but much more slowly, completely killing the momentum of the run and allowing defenders to catch up.

This is not related to stamina. I have experienced it with players who have plenty of stamina remaining. I have also experienced it in offline matches with two players on the same Xbox, so this does not appear to be a connection or network-delay issue.

It seems to happen specifically when knocking the ball forward while already sprinting. Most of the time the mechanic works normally, but occasionally the player enters what looks like an incorrect transition animation and almost stops instead of continuing to accelerate into the open space.

This is especially frustrating during counterattacks or when you have successfully beaten a defender and have open space ahead. A situation where pace should give you an advantage can suddenly turn into the defender catching you because your player unexpectedly stops accelerating.

Has anyone else experienced this?

It feels like a bug with the transition between the knock-on/touch animation and the sprint animation rather than intended player inertia. I would appreciate it if EA could investigate this issue.