Werder Bremen have suspended Naby Keïta for the rest of the season and imposed a “substantial” fine after accusing him of walking out of Sunday’s Bundesliga fixture with Bayer Leverkusen.
The 29-year-old former Liverpool midfielder did not feature in a 5-0 defeat at the BayArena, with his club saying he had chosen “not to travel to the ground with the team and decided to go home instead” after discovering he was not in the starting lineup.
A statement on the club’s website said: “Werder Bremen have suspended Naby Keïta until the end of the season. The club have also handed the midfielder a substantial fine.” Keïta, the statement added, “will no longer train with the team or be part of the first-team dressing room”.
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Werder’s head of professional football, Clemens Fritz, said: “As a club, we won’t tolerate Naby’s behaviour. He let his team down in a time of difficulty surrounding our recent run of form and squad availability and put his own interests above those of the team. We can’t allow that.
“At this stage of the season, we need full focus on the remaining games and a team who stick together. That’s why we’ve been left with no alternative.”
Leverkusen’s win clinched them the title and left Werder 12th, five points clear of the bottom three with as many games remaining.
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Keïta, who had a spell in Germany with RB Leipzig earlier in his career, joined the club as a free agent on a three-year deal last summer after the expiry of his contract at Anfield.