Fabio Coentrao has responded to claims he had gone AWOL from Real Madrid training by posting pictures of himself at the club’s training ground on his Twitter page.
Spanish publication AS had published an article earlier on Wednesday questioning the defender’s whereabouts, while other reports claimed the 30-year-old has not trained with Real all summer after returning from a one-year loan spell at Sporting Lisbon, despite having one year remaining on his seven-year contract.
Coentrao responded by posting pictures of himself working out at Madrid’s Valdebebas training ground on his Twitter and Instagram page, which had remained inactive for more than 60 days.
Up to this point, the Portuguese player had not been seen at Valdebebas, together with the rest of the squad.
Two photos posted on his social media accounts showed him training alone with fitness coach Javier Mallo, accompanied with a message taking aim at the earlier media reports: “Training session, ✓; Real Madrid, ✓; Press, X”.
It remains to be seen if Coentrao will form part of Julen Lopetegui’s plans this season.
Training session ✅
— Fabio Coentrao (@Fabio_Coentrao) 22 August 2018
Real Madrid ✅
Press ❌ pic.twitter.com/jrT6CAm0PY
Diario AS say he had not been seen in the last 62 days since appearing for Sporting in their Portuguese Cup final against Aves and had been inactive on social media.
Reports suggest he has been training with a personal trainer. Another report summarised his total cost to Los Blancos which has been a whopping €55m (€30m transfer fee, €25m in wages).
Coentrao originally joined Madrid in 2011 but has made only 43 La Liga starts for the European champions.
