Werder Bremen accuses Naby Keita of walking out on the team for Leverkusen game

LEVERKUSEN, Germany (AP) — Werder Bremen said Sunday that midfielder Naby Keita refused to travel with the team to the potential Bundesliga title-clinching game against Bayer Leverkusen because he wasn’t in the starting lineup.

Bremen indicated the former Liverpool midfielder would face unspecified consequences for making himself unavailable.

“After Naby found out yesterday that he wouldn’t play from the start, he decided not to board the bus but to go home instead,” said Clemens Fritz, Bremen’s head of professional soccer, in comments posted on X, formerly Twitter. “We will speak tomorrow with him and his adviser about the consequences and about how to proceed.”

Keita has only played five Bundesliga games since joining Bremen last year from Liverpool amid frequent injuries and illness.

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