Courtois quits EURO, accuses Tedesco of leaking information to the press

Thibaut Courtois, one of their captains and a leading figure in his country, has given an interview to Belgian outlet 'Sporza' to explain a mess he was involved in in June and to give his point of view on the current situation of the Belgian national team.

It all began in the summer, when he left the training camp when he realised that, in a match against Austria, his coach had opted for Romelu Lukaku as captain instead of him.

The Real Madrid goalkeeper took a terrible view of this rebuff because the meeting with teammate David Alaba's side was to be the 102nd in his international career. He had previously faced Sweden and Germany away from home, so this was the chance to pay him a tribute that he would have welcomed with open arms.

Instead, his coach decided not only that there should be no gesture, but that he should not even wear the armband. He proposed to give it back to him against Estonia as an away team, i.e. with no chance of celebrating the milestone with his fans.

"On the Saturday of the game, a few hours before kick-off, Tedesco called Lukaku and me. When he said Romelu was going to captain against Austria and me against Estonia on Tuesday, something broke inside me. It wasn't working anymore," he told 'Sporza'.

"I played my best against Austria but, after the whistle, I went to the coach to tell him there was a problem. At the press conference afterwards, he said something about his appreciation for me, but yes.... That was simply because I had said something to him, of course," he continued. 

Courtois went on to add: "He made no effort to find a solution, he simply said he would tell the press everything. He wanted to put pressure on me not to leave and to threaten me. That is simply not possible because it was a private conversation."

Moreover, the Belgian ruled out his participation in the EURO 2024: "The club (Real Madrid) has made it very clear that they want me to recover 100 per cent and certainly not to come back too soon.

"I don't want to betray that trust. If I don't play any more games this season, that's fine. Because of the injury, there will be no European Championship for me. First, I have to recover 100 per cent and then it's better not to put a date on it."