Benjamin Mendy has yet again risked censure from Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola after being spotted in a nightclub in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Mendy has angered Guardiola on several occasions already this season; he was fined for repeatedly being late to training and meetings at the start of the campaign and was banned from the first-team set-up for a week after turning up more than three hours late for a recovery session while he was suffering from a foot injury in September.
He had also been made to move out of his city-centre apartment amid fears that he was too easily distracted by life in the middle of Manchester.
The France international has played only 27 minutes since suffering a knee injury in November, and only returned to full training once again last week.
But he was left out of the travelling squad for City's game against Fulham on Saturday, and it appears he reacted by heading straight into Manchester city centre for a night out.
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Video footage obtained by an English national newspaper claims to show him out at 3:30am on Saturday morning.
He was never scheduled to play at Fulham but he was required to train at City's Etihad Campus base on Saturday and Guardiola has taken a dim view of his latest antics, given ongoing concerns about the left-back's focus.
The Catalan brushed off the matter during his Tuesday press conference, although he did likewise when Sergio Aguero was involved in a car crash following a concert in Amsterdam, only to have been privately livid.
“They are old enough to know what they have to do, I’m not his father," Guardiola told reporters. "I would prefer him to go home earlier but I don’t control the players in that situation.
“[I am] not frustrated. I’m a relaxed guy. It might not look like it but I sleep quite well.”
Guardiola has recently admitted that City are exploring the transfer market for a new left-back, and specifically stated that concerns over Mendy's long-term fitness mean reinforcements in that area are necessary.
"He's injured during two years," Guardiola said at the start of March. "If it happens in two seasons it can happen three, yeah definitely. Hopefully not, we’ll work with that, he’s working with that, but the truth is we could use him [for only a] few games.
“That is the reality. At the end the strongest guys, every day are there. That is the truth. That’s why we are looking for, maybe, you know, for the next season.”
City are understood to be keen on Leicester City left-back Ben Chilwell and have been often linked with Benfica's Alex Grimaldo, although Nicolas Otamendi's openness to a summer exit could affect their plans to strengthen the defence.
The Blues are also planning to bring in a deep-lying midfielder and a forward this summer.
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