Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard has blasted France national team manager Didier Deschamps.
It all relates to the treatment of midfielder N'Golo Kante.
Having played 90 minutes in both of the Blues' games before the international break, all seemed well with the World Cup winner whose season has been disrupted by injuries.
However, Kante was left out of the matchday squad for France's Euro 2020 qualifier against Iceland last Friday after sustaining a groin problem but sat on the bench against Turkey a few days later instead of returning to Cobham.
As a result, he has been ruled out of the Blues' Premier League encounter with Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon and Lampard is adamant that the situation could have been handled better.
"No, N'Golo's not fit, he had a small groin issue in the warm-up to the first international game for France," Lampard told reporters on Friday. "We didn't get him back until after the second game and he's not fit for Saturday.
"Before the international break, I know Didier Deschamps mentioned in jest a little bit about Olivier Giroud and that was obviously quite light-hearted and I get it, we all have our selection problems and he had his in the two games.
"But the Kante one was not a laughing matter because we communicated before the last international break because he was injured so couldn't go, let's think what benefits the player, he didn't go, we both agreed on that. That's how things should work.
"After the first game when he pulled out, he then had a fitness test the day before the second game, it was clear that he couldn't play. He then sat on the bench on the evening of the game, so that's not communication, so it's not such a laughing matter I suppose.
"And it's more for Kante himself because he's not an inexperienced player, he's been around the block, he's won World Cups, he's been fantastic player. I think that probably could have been handled better for sure.
"Our doctors were speaking and there were some times when things weren't coming back to us when I would expect them to come back – that's what I mean about communication.
"Even though we joked about the communication from the time before, that was much better to deal with it, as opposed to not.
"We got a player back a bit later. I understand when players are on international duty, they are their player as such but it was quite clear he wasn't fit to play.
"From our point of view we would have wanted him back to work on him but it's been and gone and as with every international player I will try and have open lines of communication with every manager for both our sakes.
"Kante, for instance, the first squad, nobody would have benefited from him going – me, him or France. We have to think about the long-term and the care of the player as well so that's some times a bit of a grey area."
