LONDON (AFP) - Watford midfielder Al Bangura, who claimed he fled witchcraft and threats to mutilate him in his native Sierra Leone, has had his application to stay in Britain rejected, his club said Tuesday.

"This is terrible news for Al and a big shock to everyone at Watford FC," the second-tier English Championship side's head of football operations, Iain Moody, said in a statement on the club's website.

"We are very sad and disappointed that he has not been granted leave to remain in the UK," added Moody.

"The Home Office will shortly initiate moves to immediately remove him from the country and as such we have instructed our legal advisers to begin preparing an appeal to this decision."

Moody said he was confident that "common sense and justice" would prevail and the 19-year-old would be allowed to stay in Britain.

Watford manager Adrian Boothroyd has described the teenager as one of the club's most promising talents and said it would be an "absolute disaster" if he were to be deported.

Boothroyd said he hoped Home Secretary Jacqui Smith might intervene.

"After the immigration hearing I said that I had faith in British justice but obviously I was totally mistaken because it's a completely ludicrous decision," he told Sky Sports.

"This country, great as it once was, seems to allow anybody in to send benefits wherever they fancy and we have one young man here who pays his taxes, has a fiancee and a newborn son and somebody somewhere thinks it's a good decision to send him back to Sierra Leone. It's ridiculous.

"We've been sent a document with the reasons why he's being deported and they are ridiculous.

"We are appealing and I only hope that rather than these pen-pushers someone higher up - perhaps the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith herself - can look at it and make a decent decision instead of the one we've got."

Bangura's asylum tribunal heard that he was trafficked to Britain from the impoverished west African country at the age of 15 and sexually assaulted, before seeking refuge as an unaccompanied minor.

The club said Bangura, who became a father for the first time less than two weeks ago, fears returning to Sierra Leone where his life could be in danger because of his late father's tribal associations.

He has no immediate family there and would have to leave behind his young son and girlfriend here, they added.

Watford said it was also unlikely he could reapply for a work permit to play professional football in Britain as Sierra Leone are ranked outside the top 70 footballing nations and he has never represented them at any level.

Bangura is currently sidelined with an ankle injury and has not played for the Hornets since late August.

Watford are currently two points clear at the top of the Championship as they try to return to the lucrative English Premier League following last season's relegation.

A Home Office spokeswoman told AFP they did not comment on individual cases while her counterpart at the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal said judgments were private to the parties involved.

But if a person wanted to appeal, they had 10 days to lodge an application with the tribunal to request permission to take the case to the Court of Appeal, she added.