Stoke fine Kenwyne Jones for refusing to play against Liverpool

Stoke striker Kenwyne Jones has been fined and dropped from the squad for Saturday’s game at Crystal Palace for his refusal to play against Liverpool.

Jones was not included in the Stoke squad for Sunday’s 5-3 defeat at the Britannia Stadium but it later emerged that he had text manager Mark Hughes the night before to say he was unavailable for selection.

Speaking at his press conference ahead of the Palace game, Hughes confirmed the reports and revealed the Trinidad and Tobago international had been fined.

“What was reported was what happened,” Hughes told reporters.

“I was disappointed and Kenwyne has been fined because it is not something that should happen.

“We spoke on Monday just to get an understanding of why it happened, so we had that meeting.

“He has been in this week training and we get on with it.

“He won’t be involved this weekend, that would be fair to say, because maybe the events of last weekend are still in his mind.

“But moving forward, we’ll have to wait and see.”

Everton are rumoured to be interested in the 29-year-old and Hughes believes his head may have been turned by the reports.

“Maybe that’s the problem – that maybe people are telling him there are clubs in for him,” Hughes went on.

“We’ve had no contact from anybody in this window, so maybe the information isn’t what it seems from the outside.

“But we’ll have to wait and see. The transfer window is open and a lot of things happen in a window.

“We’ll have to bide our time. But it is unfortunate – none of us saw it coming, so we are disappointed. Sometimes you make mistakes and on this occasion Kenwyne made a mistake. I accept that sometimes that can happen.”