Town boss Mick McCarthy is delighted that Irish U18 international midfielder Adam McDonnell is finally available for competitive action almost a year after joining the Blues from Shelbourne.
The Dubliner joined the club on a two-year deal on the final day of the August transfer window last summer but due to red tape relating to his education the club was refused clearance to play competitive games at any level. He turned 18 in May and is no longer subject to those rules.
"[He is now available] unless Sepp Blatter or somebody at FIFA steps in and stops him playing,” the Blues boss joked.
"I did tell them a long time ago that it stood for Forget Irish Football Altogether when they wanted us [Ireland] to fly to Macedonia when they were bombing Belgrade [in 1999].
"Seems to have come back to haunt me with Adam. He’s fine now, he’s 18. The ridiculous nature of that, of course, was that they stopped him from playing football, which is the one thing he’s very, very good at because apparently we hadn’t given him a suitable education [programme], which was nonsense because we had.
"It goes to a single judge and he decides we can’t play him and yet he could have come and worked in Tesco or another supermarket for minimum wage at 17 and it would have been OK, and yet FIFA stop him playing football. Sadly for him he missed six months of his career.”
Fellow midfielder Cole Skuse praised McDonnell’s performance against his old club on Saturday and said he didn’t look out of place in the first team.
McCarthy concurred: "You can imagine how pissed off I was that they stopped him playing, that they wouldn’t allow him to be registered. It’s been the biggest piece of nonsense since they asked me to fly to Macedonia.”
The Town boss has also been impressed with 20-year-old winger Dylan Connolly, who joined the Blues from Shels in January and was on the first team bench on a number of occasions before picking up an injury.
"He was just starting to do well and he got injured at the end of last season, he damaged ankle ligaments,” McCarthy recalled.
"He’s back playing now and I’m really pleased with him and I’m looking forward to seeing him this season.”
The Blues boss says that as things stand McDonnell, Connolly and the other youngsters who made last week's trip to Ireland are very much part of his thinking ahead of the season proper.
"That is my first team squad at the moment,” he added. "The two full-backs have done great, Josh Emmanuel and Myles Kenlock have been excellent.”