Premier League clubs have imposed strict guidelines on young players entering first-team dressing rooms to avoid damaging safeguarding violations.
Sportsmail can reveal a host of top-flight clubs, including Bournemouth, Fulham and Watford, have introduced a protocol that would see players, primarily under the age of 18, get changed in a separate area to the first-team dressing room.
Fulham wonderkid Harvey Elliott, who is 16, is among the players to have been prevented from changing into his match-day kit in the senior dressing room as part of the guidelines.
Elliott has been an unused substitute for Fulham’s previous three matches. He made his senior debut in September’s Carabao Cup game at Millwall - but even though the game was played at the Den, Fulham ensured the teenager changed away from the first-team.
Once into their kit - and the first-team dressing room is deemed an appropriate environment - youngsters are then allowed in to join their team-mates.
The innovative dressing room policy is not enforceable by English football’s administrative bodies - but implemented on a club-by-club basis.
Some clubs insists on their players getting dressed for action in a separate environment, while others will assess whether taking their teenager away from the rest of the senior squad would be detrimental to the player’s emotional well-being.
For instances if a youngster is showing nervousness before a match, a club may decide for the player to prepare as normal in the senior dressing room so his anxieties can be eased by senior professionals or coaches.
Sportsmail can also reveal that a number of clubs do not allow players under the age of 18 to share hotel rooms with senior professional on away trips. Where possible, youngster will have their own private room.
The self-imposed procedure underline the lengths clubs are going to avoid harmful breaches of safeguarding regulations knowing they’d face serious sanctions if it became clear they neglected their responsibilities.
Clubs are required to have members of their first-team coaching staff DBS checked, which for some sides who choose not to impose the dressing room restrictions, is viewed as sufficient enough protection for their young stars.
The issue of safeguarding has become an increasingly prevent issue in English football.
Ex-Newcastle stars Peter Beardsley and Craig Bellamy have both been accused of bullying in roles as youth coaches, while Watford’s head of academy Darren Sarll left his role earlier this year following similar allegations - cases all exclusively revealed by Sportsmail.