Bendtner was a menace to Wolfsburg – Allofs

Wolfsburg’s sporting director Klaus Allofs says the club had no option but to ban Nicklas Bendtner from the training pitch, claiming the Denmark international had become a menace to the dressing room atmosphere with his disruptive behaviour.

The 28-year-old has been told he is no longer welcome at first-team practice sessions following a number of incidents, including oversleeping and being late to training, with his future at the club now looking bleak.

Fellow attacker Max Kruse had previously escaped such a punishment, instead handed a hefty fine for some late-night misdemeanours.

But Allofs has claimed the situations are different, as the issues involving the Germany attacker did not have any negative influence on the rest of the squad.

“I do not want to say too much about Bendtner,” Allofs told NDR. “His situation is different to that of Kruse. Max was out and about in the middle of the night and we think that should not be the case.

“What’s happened with Nicklas is something different. There were concrete incidents, which I will not reveal here and now. We saw him as menace to the club. We had to take action.

“The players must realise they are part of public life and they should behave accordingly. We all know that players – and everybody else who works in the business – get rewarded pretty well. You know you have a certain responsibility to the public.

“We do not expect our players to be flawless. They are young guys. We all make mistakes. But the players do have to represent the club in a certain way. They get paid nicely for it. We have to take measures when they do not do that.”

Bendtner joined Wolfsburg in 2014 after leaving Arsenal on a free transfer, but has failed to live up to the high expectations that greeted his arrival at the Bundesliga side.

He has mainly been warming the bench over the past two seasons and has not featured in a competitive game since February 6.

The striker has a contract with Wolfsburg until June 2017, but seems likely to leave the club in the near future following his banishment.