Watford boss Marco Silva refuses to explain the absence of Stefano Okaka.

The Italy international has been missing since August.

"I don't normally like talking about individuals, but I will talk about Okaka because many, many people have written a lot of lies about the situation," he said.

"He started the first match against Liverpool. In the second match, he was on the bench. The third match, was the League Cup, he didn't stay on the bench; we changed a lot of players.

"Until that moment it was a technical decision only. After that, it was more than that.

"For me it's clear, for everyone to understand. Okaka knows why he didn't play. Marvin [Zegelaar] hasn't played one minute, neither has Jerome [Sinclair], but there have been some lies written about the situation."

Silva says Okaka knows why he's not been playing.

"The situation with Okaka, he knows why he hasn't played until now," he said.

"Everyone in the club knows what has happened. Maybe in that moment, we have solved it in a different way, but that is a different way and he has been training with us every day.

"He knows why in some moments he didn't stay in the squad, and everyone in the club knows that too."