Manchester United midfielder Fred has rubbished suggestions there is a divide in the Old Trafford dressing room between those who speak Portuguese and those who do not.
A report emerged last week claiming Portuguese players Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot as well as Brazilian duo Fred and Alex Telles were at odds with their teammates.
The alarming update on the condition of Ralf Rangnick's squad came after there were widespread accounts of cliques forming behind the scenes.
To make matters worse, United have dropped points in three of their last four Premier League games, damaging their hopes of Champions League qualification.
However, Fred insists the atmosphere in the dressing room is as buoyant as ever and laughed off claims of a rift between the Portuguese and Brazilian players and the rest of the squad.
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"The news here, they like fake news. There’s too much here. It’s a lie," the 28-year-old told ESPN Brasil. "It’s obvious that we speak Portuguese, we communicate, we have a nice friendship.
"I’m a good friend of Alex Telles, both on and off the field. I’ve known him for a long time. So obviously I’m going to be a little friend of his.
"But that doesn’t mean I won’t talk to (Jesse) Lingard, (Marcus) Rashford, (Mason) Greenwood, (Harry) Maguire, the other English people here. On the contrary.
"We have a super cool friendship here, a super cool dressing room, they’re all teammates.
"We’re always dancing in the locker room, whenever we have the team dinner. Now we’re not doing that because of Covid-19."
Fred's defiant message over the atmosphere in the dressing room goes some way to allaying fears of a brewing feud which could derail United's season.
But interim manager Rangnick still has plenty of work to do to restore order in the January transfer window while also improving on-pitch results.
The German has become embroiled in a war of words with Anthony Martial after claiming the forward did not want to travel to face Aston Villa on Saturday.
Martial, who is heavily linked Sevilla as he pushes for an exit, hit back at Rangnick by insisting he has "never refused to play".
The likes of Lingard and Donny van de Beek are also believed to be searching for a January transfer having hardly featured over the last few weeks.
Elsewhere, former Red Devils captain Roy Keane has voiced his concerns about the "culture" at the club after Ronaldo gave a strongly-worded interview regarding his teammates.
United return to action on Wednesday to face Brentford after their clash with the Bees scheduled for December was postponed due to a coronavirus outbreak.
