Anelka out on compassionate grounds

Nicolas Anelka will not feature for West Brom against Everton at the weekend
22 August 2013

West Brom striker Nicolas Anelka has been given permission to miss Saturday's Barclays Premier League clash with Everton on "compassionate grounds", the club have announced.

Reports have emerged revealing that Anelka, who has played just one match for the Baggies, walked out of training on Thursday and told staff that he might retire.

A statement on West Brom's official website read: "The club have excused the striker from club duty on compassionate grounds."

Anelka joined West Brom on a free transfer in July having completed a loan spell at Juventus when his big-money move to Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua turned sour.

The temperamental 34-year-old, who numbers Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea among his former clubs, made his West Brom debut in Saturday's 1-0 home defeat by Southampton.

The Baggies issued their statement in response to reports of Anelka walking out of training, although the club have been unavailable for further comment.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in