The manager of Championship side Derby County, Wayne Rooney, has instructed his players not to talk to their former teammates ahead of their league game against Huddersfield on Tuesday, at 20:00.
Derby County will be meeting Huddersfield for the first time since County’s former players, Richard Keogh and Duane Holmes joined Huddersfield.
Richard Keogh spent seven years at Derby County before he left the club to join MK Dons. He left MK Dons this January to join Huddersfield. He is expected to travel down to Derby County’s Pride Park Stadium to play against his former team.
Keogh who captained Derby County for a couple of years controversially left the Championship club in October 2019. The club decided to terminate his contract for gross misconduct after he sustained a knee injury in a car accident.
He was in the car with two of his teammates at Derby County – Tom Lawrence and Mason Bennett who pleaded guilty of drink-driving after the accident. They also pleaded guilty to not stopping at the scene of an accident before their car crashed.
Despite his two teammates’ statements, Richard Keogh didn’t accept that it was right for Derby County to terminate his contract. He took the case to an employment tribunal in the United Kingdom and the court-ordered Derby to pay him, £2 million in compensation. Recent reports claimed that Derby County intends to appeal the judgment.
As for Duane Holmes, he left the Championship side in January 2021 to join Huddersfield without any known controversy. But Wayne Rooney want his players to stay away from both Holmes and Keogh until the end of the Championship match tonight.
“I am sure for Richard Keogh and Duane Holmes they are two players who will be coming back and focusing on their jobs for Huddersfield,” said Rooney.
“I have said to my players I don’t want to see anyone speaking to them before the game. If they want to speak and catch up, they can do that after the game but before the game, we have to focus on our jobs.
“We have to focus on ourselves, and that’s it. After the game, they can talk about what they want, but before the game it is important we keep our attention and focus.”
🙌 @WayneRooney 🙌 https://t.co/M7EpwwKSTJ pic.twitter.com/a0wpTW12NZ
— Derby County (@dcfcofficial) February 22, 2021
Derby County are currently sitting on the 19th spot with 34 points in 30 games, 14 points away from 24th placed Wycombe. While Huddersfield are currently sitting a spot ahead of Derby County after garnering 36 points in 31 games.
In their last Championship game, Huddersfield defeated Swansea City 4-1, while Derby County lost their last Championship game 2-1 in favor of 3rd placed Watford.
