Thibaut Courtois has refuted claims that Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne had a heated argument after Belgium’s World Cup loss to Morocco.
The African side picked up a deserved 2-0 victory over the Red Devils on Sunday, leaving the Belgians in a sticky situation ahead of their final group game against 2018 finalists Croatia.
They need to beat Croatia in order to qualify for the last 16 of the tournament.
Roberto Martinez’s side picked up a flukey 1-0 win over Canada on matchday one before being humbled by Morocco.
And Jan Vertonghen, De Bruyne, and Hazard reportedly had to be pulled apart by Romelu Lukaku in the dressing room after the defeat.
The fallout from this has been interesting, with Dries Mertens’ wife saying a team barbeque that took place hours after the Morocco loss was understandably “awkward”.
Kat Kerkhofs told the MIDMID MONDIAL podcast: “That was really awkward. The players were logically still very disappointed.”
She did admit, however, that news of a dressing room bust-up was surprising.
And Courtois has taken the same stance, basically saying it didn’t happen.
The Real Madrid goalkeeper has also issued a warning to whoever in the Belgium camp is spreading fake news to the media.
“We said things to each other, and sometimes it feels good,” Courtois said.
“I don’t think we missed it, but it’s one thing to talk to each other at the table or individually or to talk in a group, to solve everything together.
“The problem, it’s that what’s said in the press isn’t always the truth. Whoever leaked this? We don’t need to know that. If it gets out, it’s his last day in the national team.”
Courtois added: “There are no problems in the team, it’s just an external attempt to create problems internally.
“Of course, after a defeat, nobody is happy, but it brings us even closer because we know that we will have to give everything on the pitch on Thursday.”
Speaking in a press conference after the match, Hazard spoke about the reported issue.
“We had a good talk among the players,” he said. “A lot has been said. We talked for an hour about good things and less good things.
“Now we want to win against Croatia. We now have two days to prepare. We have to be ready.”
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