Mystery surrounds the absence of Roy Keane from Manchester United's current Far East tour, with club officials refusing to comment on claims the Irishman was axed by Sir Alex Ferguson following a blazing row between the pair.
Officially, Keane was omitted because of a hamstring injury, but widespread reports have emerged of a bust-up at the Red Devils' training camp in Portugal three weeks ago, when the 33-year-old allegedly complained about players' families being invited onto the trip.
Ferguson had called his squad back a week earlier than usual, but with training on the Algarve restricted to half-daily sessions, the United boss decided to let wives and children accompany his squad for the duration of the week-long stay.
The move apparently did not go down well with Keane, who famously stormed out of Ireland's World Cup preparations in Japan three years ago after voicing sustained complaints over Mick McCarthy's training methods and the facilities available.
Ferguson's attention to detail is such that Keane is highly unlikely to have found any issue over the training complex itself. But what it is claimed annoyed the United skipper is attention being diverted away from preparations for the new season.
After two successive failures in the Premiership and Champions League, the notoriously single-minded midfielder felt the Old Trafford squad should have been concentrating their energies solely on training - and is thought to have told Ferguson so in a typically frank manner.
However, whether such a dispute would result in Ferguson effectively taking disciplinary action against Keane is open to doubt.
As they boarded the plane for their three-hour flight from Hong Kong to Beijing, where United play the second game of their four-match trip on Tuesday, club officials opted not to react to reports, although Ferguson may come under pressure to address the issue at a planned media conference to promote the encounter with Beijing Hyundai tomorrow.