TOTTENHAM AND IRELAND striker Troy Parrott was denied a transfer loan move because of an obscure Uefa ruling, according to UK media reports.

The 17-year-old Dubliner had been linked with short-term switches to QPR, Burnley, Charlton and Alan Pardew’s ADO Den Haag among others.

Jose Mourinho had previously suggested Parrott was “not ready” for regular first-team football at Tottenham, despite handing him a Premier League debut off the bench last December in the 5-0 win over Burnley.

According to the Daily Mail, Spurs were keen to let the youngster leave on a short-term deal and enable him to get regular senior football elsewhere, with the Irish player having excelled at underage level on a consistent basis.

Nevertheless, clubs are required to include a certain number of homegrown players in squads for both the Premier League and the Champions League. To qualify as a homegrown player for the latter, Parrott has to complete two continuous years at Spurs. 

The Dubliner could only sign for Spurs from Irish schoolboy club Belvedere once he turned 16, on 4 February 2018. Consequently, this year’s January transfer window deadline fell just short of Parrott’s two-year anniversary at the club.

Therefore, had Parrott left, under Uefa rules he could not be considered a homegrown player, unless he completed another two consecutive years at Tottenham.

The news will come as a disappointment to Mick McCarthy, who handed Parrott his Ireland debut in a friendly with New Zealand last November.

With the player now unlikely to see much first-team action at Spurs between now and the end of the season, McCarthy may struggle to justify including the highly rated youngster in his squad for the crucial Euro 2020 play-off semi-final away to Slovakia in Bratislava on 26 March.

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