IRISH UNDER-21 international goalkeeper Shane Supple confirmed yesterday that he is to leave Ipswich Town with immediate effect to return home to his family and pursue a career away from the game.

“Playing professional football is not something I want to continue doing,” the 22-year-old Dubliner said after his contract with the club was cancelled by mutual consent.

“As you grow up you realise there are other things in life and to be honest, the game is not what I thought it was.”

Supple had long been regarded as a bright prospect. He was a key member of the Ipswich team that won the FA Youth Cup in 2005 and later had a couple of spells as the club’s first choice goalkeeper.

In the end, though, he couldn’t hold down the place and last year had to look on as Richard Wright arrived to claim the shirt.

Having taken over at the end of last season, Roy Keane awarded the Irishman a new contract over the summer but he has since lined up Bohemians goalkeeper Brian Murphy to come to Ipswich during the January transfer window, a signing that would seem certain to have pushed Supple down the pecking order.

In the circumstances the player might well have been expected to move on but his preference, he confirmed yesterday, is to walk away from the game.

“There is not one reason why I have made my decision, there are a number of factors,” he said.

“But deep down my heart is not in the game any more and I’m not going to go into work every day trying to convince myself that it is, so it’s the right time for me to walk away.

“I suppose you could say that I have fallen out of love with the game and when that happens I’ve always said to myself that I wouldn’t hang around.”

Don Givens, who worked with Supple during the Dubliner’s time with the Irish under-21s said he was “surprised and disappointed”, to hear the news but said that he understood how easily a player in his position might become disillusioned.

“It’s always very difficult for young goalkeepers because a lot of the time they’re not playing,” he said. “Very often with the under-21s they are struggling to get games regularly with their clubs. They can’t make the breakthrough and they can’t get out on loan because right down the line, managers want experienced goalkeepers.”

Givens said that Supple’s size might also have been an issue at a time when British managers tend to be increasingly preoccupied with having big goalkeepers but Givens said he never saw it as a problem.