Hoops boss Stephen Bradley confirms Richie Towell not training with first team and won’t play in rest of European campaign

Towell has been absent from the Rovers squad since he publicly vented his frustration with being left on the bench for the duration of the league win over Shelbourne in Tallaght last month, throwing his shinpads away and storming down the tunnel after it became clear that he wouldn't be the final substitute.

His situation was raised ahead of Rovers' Conference League encounter with TNS tomorrow, with Bradley confirming Towell is out of the picture for that game and their remaining encounters with Rapid Vienna, Borac Banja Luka and Chelsea.

It's expected he will move elsewhere at the end of the season, although Bradley refused to definitively state that Towell will not play for Rovers again.

"Richie won't be involved in any of the games coming up," said the Rovers manager, before confirming the 33-year-old is not training with the team 'at the moment.'

"I'll speak about Richie at the end of the season when we're finished but right now, tomorrow we have a massive game, a massive game for the team. I haven't said that (he won't play for Rovers again), I've said we'll talk about Richie at the end of the year."

Scottish striker Marc McNulty is still training with the Rovers group, even though he isn't registered to participate in this stage of the European campaign. Danny Mandroiu and Sean Kavanagh will miss the meeting with the Welsh champions through injury, with Sean Hoare battling to be included.

Bradley is embracing the opportunity to extend his team's European mission, explaining that it has given his group a focus that has prevented them from wallowing on their near miss to Shelbourne in the title race.

He said he'd prefer to be involved in this game than preparing for an FAI Cup final on Sunday.

"Is this more important than the FAI Cup? I don't think is any question about that for us," he continued. "At the start of the year it's league, Europe and cup, in that order.

"We obviously haven't won the league and are doing well in Europe, so this is a really big game for us.

"Like I've said a million times now, being honest we have't been good enough (in the league). So it's very easy to understand why we haven't got a league winners medal in our hands.

"What helps having been successful over a period of time, you understand not to get too high or too low and just to reflect and move on very quickly.

"And this group has been brilliant at that throughout the years. And that definitely doesn't change just because we've lost the league this year."