Former Roma coach Eusebio di Francesco insists he never had a problem with Rick Karsdorp.

The Holland fullback appears set to leave after being publicly slammed by coach Jose Mourinho.

Di Francesco said: "Let's make this clear: I didn't have a fierce argument with the player, I made a technical choice to give him a signal. I also did it with other players, I left him in the stands to make him understand that he had to work in a different way.

“Karsdorp is a guy like many others, I can't go into the situation with Mourinho because I don't know what they said to each other or what happened. All I can say is that he's a good guy, maybe he has alternated good games with not so good ones.

“With me he had a serious knee injury that led him to have an inconsistent performance, but in recent years he has grown a lot, I think he is a very good player."