Coventry City’s manager Gordon Strachan fears for the safety of three of his young stars who have been picked for the FIFA under-20 World Championships in Nigeria.

Irish youngsters Barry Quinn and Barry Ferguson and Australian goalkeeper Tynan Scope are due to fly out next week for the championships which start in a fortnight.

Strachan is worried about possible terrorist attacks and admitted that he would have tried to stop his own son Gavin going to the tournament if he had been selected.

He said:

"Nigeria is a country that struggles to run itself, a country in which human rights stink. It is not an honest country recently, so I don’t know why we are going to play there.

"I am not saying the general population is dishonest, but the country has been run by dishonest people, so I don’t know why they have got the pleasure of hosting a world tournament like this.

"If they are not playing the human game and not looking after their own people I find it crazy that the tournament is being played there.

"Any country which has had to undertake the security they have had to do to protect visitors, should not be allowed to have this tournament.

"If my son got picked I would hope I could change his mind. It’s easy to talk with bravado and go along with things, but sometimes it is brave to be a coward and not go.

"I am not happy with it. If there was something we could legally do to stop my three players going then I would. It’s not for the sake of having them in my squad but for their safety and well being.

"What better platform could there be for anyone wanting to bring attention to that area of Africa than to cause a problem? We all pray nothing will happen and it probably won’t, but I don’t think we should put people through that risk."