New Chelsea signing Cesc Fabregas has been involved in a training ground row with Spain coach Vicente del Bosque.
Tensions were high in the camp after defeats by Holland and Chile dumped the reigning champions out of the World Cup early and things came to a head on Saturday.
Del Bosque was unimpressed with Fabregas’ attitude in training and the low intensity he was operating at.
After a while, enough was enough, and Del Bosque ordered Fabregas to give his bib to Xabi Alonso and leave the session.
The former Arsenal and Barcelona star reluctantly did so, with team-mates stopping him from arguing further with Del Bosque.
Fabregas was belived to be angry about both Spain’s plight and also the fact that he was only utilised as third substitute in the 5-1 mauling by Holland, and not at all against Chile.
The 27-year-old’s sum total of minutes so far in the World Cup is 12.
Fabregas was then filmed trudging away, before finding a bicycle and cycling off, understandably in a bad mood.
Del Bosque is quite a forgiving coach and it would not be a surprise if Fabregas started Spain’s final group match, against Australia, as the boss tries to create a new side from the wreckage of the old one.
His new manager at club level, Jose Mourinho, is an altogether different prospect and would take badly to a similar occurrence at Cobham.
Defender Raul Albiol tried to play the incident down when questioned about it by the Spanish media.
He said: ‘I didn’t see anything strange. I imagine that Cesc is equally annoyed as the rest of the group for being eliminated early, nothing else.’
While Fabregas could still play a part against Australia, in the dead rubber clash on Monday night, Iker Casillas may be dropped for Pepe Reina.
The Real Madrid goalkeeper has made several costly errors so far and may have played his last game for La Roja.
