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Wesley Fofana is training with Leicester City’s under-23 team as Chelsea continue with their attempts to sign the centre-back.
Brendan Rodgers confirmed on Tuesday, after the Foxes’ penalty shoot-out win over Stockport County in the EFL Cup, that Leicester had turned down another bid from Chelsea for Fofana.
The defender missed Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Southampton, with Rodgers saying he was not in the right frame of mind to play and the Leicester boss revealed the 21-year-old had also failed to report for training one day last week.
Fofana is now training away from the first team with Leicester’s young players.
“There was an offer gone in and it’s been rejected,” Rodgers said in a press conference, with reports claiming Chelsea’s latest offer was worth around £70million.
“Apart from that, I’m not 100 per cent on the other details, because we were focusing on the game [against Stockport].
“He’s training with the under-23s so he can get his football fitness and keep working. It’s so important at this stage to control any sort of distractions that may be there.
“He’s a good kid, it’s just been a really challenging situation for him. I’ve had it a number of times in my career where there’s players who can deal with it, cope with it, get on, want to help their team-mates. There’s others that just can’t deal with the distraction.
“Of course that distracts them and it’s not quite right, and they miss a training session, then you need the full commitment from your players. These guys get well paid. The very least you can do is turn up. And if you don’t, with all due respect, you can’t then just think you can walk into our group.”
Rodgers is now hoping for a swift resolution either way, with the transfer window closing next week.
“Of course if it happens, the sooner the better, because it might allow us to do some work,” said Rodgers, whose side have only brought in goalkeeper Alex Smithies on a free transfer so far during this window.
Chelsea are also hopeful of signing Everton’s Anthony Gordon, with reports on Tuesday suggesting the Blues would be willing to pay up to £60m for the winger.
Everton manager Frank Lampard told Sky Sports that “ideally” a swift resolution would be found, though reiterated his stance on Gordon remaining a key player.
