Town boss Mick McCarthy has expressed his frustration that Irish youngster Adam McDonnell, who he says would have been in his first team squad at Millwall, is still unable to play competitive games nearly five months after joining the Blues from Shelbourne due to FIFA red tape.

Irish U18 international McDonnell, 17, joined Town on a two-year deal on the final day of the summer transfer window but because of recently tightened FIFA rules aimed at protecting young players and their education, the midfielder is yet to receive clearance to play.

A number of other young Irish players are understood to be in the same position at other clubs.

McCarthy says the Dubliner would already have featured in his first team squad had he been available for selection.

“Hopefully we’ll get him cleared because he’s a good player is Adam,” he said.

“Adam would have been on the bench at Millwall [a fortnight ago], he would have been involved.

“Whilst they’re trying to protect him education-wise, they’re actually depriving him of what he’s very good at doing, which is playing football.

“He’s not coming from a country where he’s not had an education, arguably the education system in Ireland is better than it is here.

“We’ll see. Hopefully he’ll get done because he is a good player. He trains with the first team most of the time and he would have been involved.”

McDonnell is close to being joined at Portman Road by his former Shels team-mate Dylan Connolly, who at 19 won’t face the same problem with the issue only affecting players under 18.

Town are hopeful that McDonnell’s clearance will be granted by FIFA soon but if not he turns 18 in May when the rules will no longer apply to him.

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