PHIL Brown admits Hull City have been "bamboozled" by the red tape holding up Jozy Altidore's Premier League bow.

The 19-year-old, who joined on a season-long loan from Villareal two weeks ago, remains in New York awaiting international clearance from the US government.

Despite being granted a work permit nine days ago, Altidore's new biometric passport was delayed after a swine flu scare in the US squad in Mexico.

While the quarantine has since been removed, the striker's frustrations are not expected to be resolved until tomorrow.

Brown hopes Altidore will be ready to feature in the visit of Bolton this weekend, but says the hold-up has been remarkable.

He said: "I might as well be speaking to Barack Obama. We're bamboozled by the whole process.

"I didn't want to fall out with anyone in the US set-up so he flew out to Mexico, sat on the bench on the Wednesday and gets 14 minutes. I'm thinking that he then just flies to Spain, gets his passport stamped and comes to London on the Friday. It wasn't as easy as that and he had to get a biometric passport test.

"Then all of a sudden one of the American team has a problem with swine flu and there's quarantine procedures. He's not quarantined anymore, we've gone past that, but we're waiting on the biometric test in order for him to get international clearance.

"He was due to have the test yesterday and hopefully he gets the results of that and they give him the all-clear to fly to Europe on Thursday."

Altidore has been training with his former MLS side New York Red Bulls in a bid to maintain fitness but according to Brown, the rookie has struggled to cope with the delay.

He added: "There's a 19-year-old lad sitting in a hotel room in New York and all he wants to do is play.

"I've not seen his 'Twittering' but I believe he should be doing it everyday to make sure people know how frustrated he is."