Out-of-favour winger Jadon Sancho will train away from the rest of the Manchester United first-team squad, the Premier League club has announced.
The news comes in the aftermath of the England international's complaints over his treatment by manager Erik ten Hag on social media.
Sancho said in a pinned post that he had been made a “scapegoat” by the Dutch coach, who had dropped him from the match-day squad for their 3-1 defeat by Arsenal.
United said in their statement that the matter is now being treated as a disciplinary issue.
“Jadon Sancho will remain on a personal training programme away from the first-team group, pending resolution of a squad discipline issue," the club said on Thursday night.
Sancho had wasted little time in issuing a response following Ten Hag's revelatory comments in his post-match interviews at the Emirates Stadium.
Ten Hag said the 23-year-old had been left out for his poor level in training.
“Jadon, on his performances in training we did not select him,” the Dutchman said. “You have to reach a level every day at Manchester United and we can make choices in the front line. So for this game he was not selected.”
Sancho responded later that day with a statement on X, formerly Twitter. He wrote: “Please don’t believe everything you read! I will not allow people saying things that is completely untrue, I have conducted myself in training very well this week.
“I believe there are other reasons for this matter that I won’t go into, I’ve been a scapegoat for a long time which isn’t fair!”
The post has now been deleted. United, minus Sancho, host Brighton on Saturday.
One player who might be involved, however, is defender Harry Maguire who continues to find himself in the eye of a media storm.
Maguire was widely mocked at Hampden Park on Tuesday night as England beat Scotland 3-1. The centre-back, who scored an own goal in the game, has fallen down the pecking order at United and was stripped of the club captaincy in the summer.
The Three Lions coach Gareth Southgate jumped to his defence and then, on Thursday afternoon, so did his mother, Zoe Maguire-Wilkinson, via a post on Instagram.
“As a mum seeing the level of negative and abusive comments in which my son is receiving from some fans, pundits and the media is disgraceful and totally unacceptable to any walk of life never mind someone who works his socks off for club and country,” she wrote.
“I was there in the stand as usual, it’s not acceptable what’s been created, over nothing. I understand that in the football world there are ups and downs, positives and negatives but what Harry receives has gone far beyond ‘football’.
“For me seeing him go through what he’s going through is not OK. I would hate to have to see any other parents or players go through this in the future, especially the young boys and girls breaking through the ranks today.
“Harry has a massive heart and it’s a good job he’s mentally strong and can handle it as others may not be able too. I wish this sort of abuse on nobody!”
