Due to fitness concerns, Jude Bellingham was listed as one of Borussia Dortmund's substitutes against RB Leipzig, according to Edin Terzic.
Edin Terzic, the head coach of Borussia Dortmund, claims that the recent criticism of Emre Can had nothing to do with his decision to bench Jude Bellingham against RB Leipzig.
Dortmund's DFB-Pokal ambitions were dashed at the quarterfinal stage in a 2-0 loss on Wednesday at Red Bull Arena, and Bellingham was listed among the substitutes.
A day after publicly stating that his teammate has "to learn a lot" after repeatedly letting his emotions get the best of him on the field, Can left out the England international.
Terzic, though, insisted that Bellingham's lack of a starting berth against Leipzig was down to fitness concerns rather than any form of in-house conflict.
Jude indicated that he wasn't fully fit following the match against [Bayern] Munich, Terzic told Sky Deutschland.
Terzic responded when questioned about Can's criticism of Bellingham, "It has nothing to do with the decision."
Bellingham (36) has made more appearances for Dortmund this season than anybody else (Nico Schlotterbeck, 37), and all but three of those appearances have been starts.
With an hour remaining against Leipzig, the 19-year-old, who has been linked with a number of Europe's elite clubs, was inserted but was unable to aid Dortmund in recovering.
Timo Werner scored the game's first goal in the 22nd minute, and Will Orban added a goal in the 98th to give Leipzig a well-deserved victory. Leipzig had 11 shots on goal to BVB's one.
Over the past month, Dortmund has been eliminated from both the DFB-Pokal and the Champions League, and their 4-2 loss to Bayern on Saturday caused them to lose their position atop the Bundesliga.
Terzic accepted that his team's campaign is effectively finished if they do not learn from their consecutive losses and had no concerns about the setback to Leipzig.
The first half of the game was "catastrophic," he claimed. "We didn't proceed to the following round of a cup we had a strong chance of winning, so it was essentially a terrible evening.
"It's time to focus on the future. There is still a significant rivalry that we hope to contribute significantly to.
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