“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,” explained Clemens Fritz, Werder Bremen’s head of professional football.

After finding out that he would not be in the starting XI against Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Naby Keïta chose not to travel to the ground with the team, and decided to go home instead.