NEWS: Stewart Donald explains why Papy Djilobodji hasnt been officially sacked yet by Sunderland

In his appearance yesterday on the Roker Rapport podcast, Sunderland owner Stewart Donald discussed the latest on Papy Djilobodji’s status.

The Senegalese defender was given his notice by the club back in September after he went AWOL and refused to return to training, but while Didier Ndong accepted his notice and has officially left, Djilobodji appealed his decision and we are now waiting for a ruling to be made as to whether or not the 29-year-old has a case:

Ndong, obviously, we’ve done a deal with.

Djilobodji at the moment isn’t concluded, it’s with the solicitors. We’ve obviously said we’ll terminate his contract, he’s appealed that. So that hasn’t been completely concluded.

So it’s premature to say that Djilobodji has gone and won’t cost us any money. We have said he shouldn’t and he has gone, he’s said ‘no, I think you should be paying me and I’m not happy with your decision’.

Someone is going to decide on that in the very near future as to whether or not he’s got a case or we were correct. On the basis that we’re correct then yes, he’s gone. On the basis we’re not, then I presume he’ll come back and we’ll have to pay him.

We don’t think that will happen but stranger things have happened in the footballing world than that.

But Ndong has gone.

While Donald confirmed that we must wait to see how Djilobodji’s future is resolved, he did explain what that means for Sunderland’s January transfer window plans. You can keep an eye on RokerReport.com for more on those plans or you can listen to the podcast in full on iTunes, Acast, Spotify, YouTube or TuneIn.

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