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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
David Irvine

Celtic target Adam Idah makes Norwich apology as manager explains AWOL row

Adam Idah has apologised to Norwich manager Johannes Hoff Thorup after he went AWOL during pre-season.

The striker, 23, was not involved for his club against Hoffenheim after failing to travel with the squad to Austria.

Idah - who spent the second half of the season at Celtic - failed to report for the flight to the summer training camp but later travelled alone to join the squad.

Thorup has vowed there will be consequences for Idah with internal disciplinary action planned but admitted the player will be reintegrated into the group.

The manager told The Pink Un: “He reported late for the flight on Sunday morning for reasons that should never happen. So I spoke to him the other night.

"And of course we told him that he had to come to Austria as fast as possible. He came during the night and I spoke to him again.

"I said ‘We as a group of players want to create a protecting environment and this can never happen’. You cannot be a part of the game squad for this game.

“He was sad about the situation and apologised and so on. We will get him back into the group. But it's also an important message for us to say that there will be consequences when you don't do your stuff. (Will he be disciplined?) Yes, we will handle that internally.”


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Thorup conceded the huge speculation over a transfer move to Celtic may have been a factor in Idah's AWOL incident but insisted he will support the striker as the matter.

“Of course, it'd be fair to say because he is a young boy," said the manager of transfer interest impacting Idah's situation. "And this is maybe the first time in his career where there is so much attention on him and so many media stories and so on,

“I can completely understand that can be difficult for a football player to handle.

"So it will take some more conversations with him. And we will of course integrate him again and everyone will be there to support him.

“But it's also important for us to make it very, very clear that we have our rules internally. If you step out of that and do something that is not aligned with that then of course you cannot play with the rest of the group.

"But he is a good boy and I don't think it was on purpose. It was just too much going on.”

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