Aaron Connolly's Italian future thrown into doubt after comments from Venezia president

The Ireland international had moved to the Italian Serie B at the start of the season.

Wed, 07 Dec, 2022 - 17:30

Shane Donovan

Irish starlet Aaron Connolly's future at Italian outfit Venezia has been cast into doubt by club president Duncan Niederauer.

Connolly (22) joined the Venice-based side at the start of the season. The attacker played five games across August and September but hasn't been involved in a matchday squad since.

The Galway native hasn't featured since due to injury, but Niederauer insists that Connolly has been fit for the last number of weeks.

Niederauer noted that the club will be holding talks with Connolly's parent club, Brighton, at the start of 2023, and will be looking to find a "solution".

"The player is not injured. He was, but he's fine, he had some adaptation difficulties," Niederauer told Triventogoal.

“He has had some adaptation difficulties. We will talk to Brighton in January to find a solution. In January and June we will do several operations."

Connolly has struggled for game time at Brighton in recent years and his loan spells away from the Premier League outfit haven't worked out in his favour either. He spent the second-half of last season on loan at Middlesbrough before deciding to turn his focus to Italy for 2022/23.

The 22-year-old - who hasn't featured in the Republic of Ireland senior setup since 2021 - impressed for Jim Crawford's under-21s in the recent European Championship loss to Israel in September.