Louis van Gaal claims David de Gea told one of his coaches he did not want to play for Manchester United in their first match of the season.
The 24-year-old will not feature against Aston Villa on Friday because Van Gaal is convinced he is not in the right frame of mind to play due to Real Madrid’s interest in signing him.
That was the same reason the Dutchman cited last week for leaving De Gea out of his squad for the season-opening win against Tottenham last Saturday.
In a new twist, Van Gaal revealed during an odd exchange on Thursday that De Gea had told his goalkeeping coach Frans Hoek he did not want to play against Tottenham.
Van Gaal gave his normal pre-match press conference in the Jimmy Murphy Centre at Carrington and then stunned the room by wandering over and sitting next to a journalist in the audience who had earlier questioned him about De Gea.