Rafa Benitez is adamant that conversations he had with Lucas Digne this week must remain "private" as he refused to elaborate on the full-back's future.
Digne was dumped from the Everton squad for Monday night's game with Arsenal after simmering issues between the manager and France international came to a head
It is understood that Digne has made it clear he is not in favour of Benitez's tactics and argues they restrict his ability to influence the game in attack.
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When pressed on Digne's omission after the 2-1 win, Benitez said he wanted to select players with the "right mentality".
A report in the Athletic this week claimed that Digne and Benitez were embroiled in a training ground argument, in Spanish, ahead of the Arsenal game and the Everton boss seemed keen to make a point, when asked about talks with the full-back this week.
"Normally when you have conversations with players they are private conversations and you have to keep them private," he said.
"The only thing I can say is he's been training and we have to decide tomorrow if he's available or not."
Asked again about Digne's situation, Benitez replied: "All I can say is when you have private conversations with players in any language, it has to stay private."
Before the Everton boss added: "I can not comment any more because we are talking about something else when we have just beaten Arsenal the way we did and we have Crystal Palace coming.
"We have to understand the situation, move forward, and think about Crystal Palace."
