'˜It takes a special player to play for Derry City' - Shiels

As of last night, the player remained under contract with the club, however, Shiels claimed injuries and a lack of game-time were the reasons behind Boyle’s hasty departure.

The City boss claimed it ‘takes a special person’ to play for Derry City and said he expects there to be ‘drop-offs’ during the course of a season.

“I have a really good squad of players,” said Shiels. “If I set professional demands, then players have to live up to that. Some players aren’t going to get games, especially when they’ve been injured for so long,” he said when asked to shed further light on Boyle’s situation.

“Nathan just wasn’t getting enough game-time and I can understand that. There are no grey areas, there are just high demands. There’s a challenge to what we do and when you go for a deeper squad it means some players are going to have less games and that’s what happened.

“Nathan Boyle hasn’t been getting as much time as we could give him because of his injuries, not because of his abilities. Everything in this city is speculation. It’s all conjecture. We set high demands at this club and some people it suits and some people it doesn’t.

“I put demands on players and look for professionalism and it’s difficult for everyone to commit to that. You have to be a special person to play for this club.

“There will be drop-offs along the way and this season we’ve had our fair share of them but it’s not because of anything untoward, believe me.”

Another player to fall by the wayside this week was former Manchester United forward, John Cofie who left the club by mutual consent after just four appearances and Shiels said the player goes ‘with our blessing’.

“The club made a statement and that should be that put to bed on John Cofie,” he explained. “His wife had a baby and had a very difficult pregnancy and I can understand his desire to get back home. He goes with our blessing.”