WOLVES defender Jonny Castro Otto has been BANNED from the first team until the end of January.
The 29-year-old was banished from the club’s training ground last week following a training incident.
He was subsequently left out of Gary O’Neil’s matchday squad ahead of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Arsenal.
And now he has been axed from the squad until the end of January.
An official statement from Wolves sporting director Matt Hobbs read: “As people have become aware, there was an incident with Jonny last week, and since then I’ve sat down with him, he’s apologised, and we have outlined the way forward.
“We had a conversation and have agreed that at least until the end of the January window he won’t be part of the first-team group.
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“He will still be training at the club and, if he chooses, he can play for the under-21s to keep up his match sharpness, and I think, knowing him, he’ll probably do that.
“This is a guy who has been a great servant to the football club. One incident doesn’t define the role he’s played during the successful times and the man he is day to day around the place.
“Everybody has moments and that’s all it was, but we have to deal with it and move forward for the wider group.”
Jonny initially signed from Atletico Madrid on loan in 2018, but his deal was made permanent the following January for £18million.
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The full-back has since made 134 appearances in all competitions, with his most recent coming in September.
His first – and only – Premier League appearance this season was in Wolves’ 2-1 win over Manchester City.
The Spaniard is under contract at Molineux until June 2025.
Hobbs added: “It might seem big because someone’s been removed from the group, but it’s not. When you’re trying to create a culture, keeping everything aligned, sometimes things happen which aren’t what you want to be and where we want to go.
“Now it’s dealt with. It’s not something Gary’s had to deal with, we’ve dealt with it as a football club and allowed Gary to focus on getting the team ready for the important games coming up.
“It makes sense to take it up to then (the end of January) because a lot of things can change between now and then, and then we’ll sit down, talk again and decide the way forward.
“December’s a busy month with lots of points to play for and lots of games we feel we can be really competitive in. That always has to be the focus.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
