Exclusive

Diafra Sakho’s absence from the squad which drew with Arsenal will result in him and manager Slaven Bilic meeting ahead of the match against Manchester United.

We understand the striker reported himself injured after training on Friday after it looked likely he would not start in yesterday’s game and failed to show at the stadium for the Arsenal game.

Sakho himself has stoked up a storm of unrest before the game by posting on his personal snapchat: “When I’m hated I don’t gve a f..k. I do everything to be more hated.”

There had been suggestions that he had been disciplined after missing out on a a scheduled media appearance at the Lakeside shopping centre club store last week.

But we were told exclusively: “No, that was bad organisation. He had three medical tests, one after the other, with three different people.

“The results were very good and the problem he had has cured itself. The people who had booked the tests hadn’t liased with media – thus he couldn’t make it.”

Nobody has a clue as to why the Senegal striker took to snapchat with such an angry message.

We were told: “Nobody saw Sak at the stadium today and it will now be down to the manager to decide how he handles this on Monday with the Manchester United match in front of us.”