Virgil Van Dijk wants to leave Southampton

Virgil van Dijk is training on his own after telling Southampton boss Mauricio Pellegrino he wants to leave the club. The Netherlands centre-half was a target for Liverpool earlier this summer, but the Reds withdrew their interest after Saints complained to the Premier League.

Southampton maintains van Dijk is not for sale, and Pellegrino has excluded the player from pre-season until he can demonstrate his commitment. Van Dijk, 26, has five years to run on the contract he signed last summer, 12 months after arriving from Celtic.

He said “The boy said that he is not available to play because he wants to leave, this is the decision. I had to say, 'If you don't want to be involved because you don't feel okay then you have to train alone until this period of time is over. He is not involved with the team because psychologically he is not 100 per cent. I need to work with the players who are 100 per cent to defend Southampton. It's easy for me.”