Jim McGuinness has threatened to pull Donegal out of next year's Dr McKenna Cup if third level colleges continue to have first call on players.

While the Ulster Council recently relaxed the rule - allowing players to choose who they wished to play for in the pre-season competition - Donegal were still forced to line out without the likes of Michael Murphy, Martin McElhinney and Michael Boyle who are studying in DCU, Eoin Waide and Leo McLoone at UUJ, and Mark McHugh who is a student at IT Sligo.

"I think we are going to have to seriously consider whether or not we enter the Dr McKenna Cup next year if we don't have the college players available to us," McGuinness said in the Irish Examiner.

"I think this is something the GAA is going to have to look into and who the college players are available to.

"It is certainly not working and I would urge the GAA to look at the whole subsidiary competition and if there is no change we will have to seriously consider not playing in the Dr McKenna next year."

The Ulster champions lost all three games in the McKenna Cup and McGuinness admits it has been difficult to prepare for the National League without their college players.

"We're at a slight disadvantage because of that and heading to Newry for a first league game without the students having played a competitive game for us is a difficult situation.

"We're a young squad and a year down the track and we're still trying to develop them and develop cohesion in what you want to do. It's not easy going into a game against Down and then we have Laois the week afterwards. We'd prefer to have them." Tweet

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