Fulham defender Timothy Castagne has hit out at Real Madrid goalkeeper and Belgium teammate Thibaut Courtois.
The clash between Courtois and Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco over the captaincy still burns for Castagne.
He recalled to Le Soir: "It would be strange if Thibaut came back as if nothing had happened. Most players always have small injuries or pain somewhere. We are never really 100%. If it's a real, serious injury and your club forces you to come back, or you're able to play. From my point of view, if Thibaut had wanted, he could have stayed, but it's his choice.
“I talked about it with some teammates and they also see it this way, but I can't speak for the whole group. There was the story of the captain's armband, then the photo of his knee on the plane and the story of the captain's armband at his wedding (a photo of the goalkeeper's sister wearing the captain's armband). It is true that Thibaut is the best goalkeeper in Belgium and in the world, but we must ask ourselves the question: do we want to sacrifice the Rode Duivels group for one player?
"The most important thing is that he recovers from the injury. Then it will be a problem to resolve between Thibaut and the coach. And if at that moment Thibaut no longer wants to come, it will be his choice. We will have Koen Casteels who is very good and also other goalkeepers."
Castagne also spoke of rumours that there were problems inside the camp during the World Cup in Qatar.
"If I say that we didn't have a united group... You always have to look in the mirror. We spoke in the hotel after the match against Morocco. We said some things to each other at that moment and this allowed us to do better against Croatia.
"We were just one goal away from qualifying and we had many chances. If we repeated the match, we would always win it. In the end I don't know if (Roberto) Martínez had lost the dressing room but the environment was different from my debut, in September 2018, when we played very well In the last months of his mandate we no longer recognized the team that had done well in Russia. We no longer dared.
"Is it all Martínez's fault? No. It's a bit of everything. We need to talk more in training and do more things together off the pitch. This is an aspect that Domenico Tedesco pays attention to."
