Courtois ‘deeply disappointed’ in national coach

Does Thibaut Courtois have an injury or is he angry because of a captaincy issue? Belgium is currently under the spell of the Courtois-gate. The goalkeeper, who canceled today ahead of the game with Estonia, is at odds with national coach Domenico Tedesco.

Courtois is “deeply disappointed” after the national coach’s statements. According to Tedesco, Courtois had left the selection because he was not allowed to wear the captain’s armband against Austria last Saturday. The goalie denies this and says he is struggling with a knee injury.

Due to Kevin De Bruyne’s absence, Courtois would take the captaincy alongside Romelu Lukaku during the current international period. Against Austria, Lukaku was the captain and Courtois would wear the belt during tomorrow night’s game with Estonia.

After the European Championship qualifier last Saturday, the goalkeeper came to Tedesco. “He told me he was disappointed and felt humiliated. He wanted to leave. I tried to persuade him not to,” Tedesco said.

Courtois himself was surprised to see the press conference. “He gave a biased, subjective reading there of a private conversation we had after the game against Austria,” Courtois wrote on his Instagram account.

“In that conversation I asked him to explain decisions that have harmed us in the past and avoid them from now on. Being captain of the national team is not a whim or an arbitrary choice, that should be his decision and I tried to convey that to him. That unfortunately didn’t work out.”

Why Courtois left the Belgian team? According to the goalkeeper, it was because of a problem with his right knee.

“The medical team of Real Madrid and of the national team were in contact and looked at the relevant material to make the decision to leave the training camp,” Courtois said.