The Dublin derby clash between Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians that was due to take place next week has been postponed.
The game was due to take place at Tallaght Stadium on September 5th. However, it has been called off after two players from each club were called up for the Republic of Ireland Under-21 training camp which is due to take place in Northern Ireland.
Manager Jim Crawford organised the camp after a friendly game against Slovenia was called off due to Covid-19 concerns.
Rovers made the request after Neil Farrugia and Liam Scales were called up to the squad. Bohemians agreed as Danny Grant and Danny Mandriou had already been included in the squad.
While Bohemians manager Keith Long did not object to the request, he did question the logic of League of Ireland games being scheduled in international windows.
"It shouldn't be a situation where you have an international window with a league game and cup game scheduled in the same week," Long said.
"It has to be better planning but we have said this for years so it is what it is to a certain extent. I shouldn't be having conversations with the U-21 manager. He should be concentrating on preparing a team because they have a big game against Italy (in October) and they want to do well.
"If we were to call off both games, I'm sure it wouldn't go down too well and we would get squeezed in somewhere where it's not ideal either."
