Lescott dropped from Everton’s Europa League tie

Everton defender Joleon Lescott’s future at Goodison Park is in doubt after he was dropped for Thursday’s Europa League play-off first leg against Czech club Sigma Olomouc.

Lescott did not train with the rest of David Moyes’s first teamers on Wednesday following weeks of transfer speculation linking him with Manchester City, who have had two bids rejected for the defender.

The 27-year-old, who was forced to train with the reserves, has also had a transfer request rejected by Moyes and turned in a below-par performance in Saturday’s 6-1 home defeat by Arsenal.

The Everton boss admitted he was unhappy with his centre-back’s attitude and said: “Joleon’s attitude has not been right these past days, he has disappointed me and he has disappointed his team-mates. He is not in the right frame of mind.”

Moyes insisted he still does not want to sell the player. “I hope this will all be sorted out, after the (transfer) deadline,” he said.

But City are sure to return with an improved offer in the hope of persuading Everton to offload a clearly unhappy player.

With Phil Jagielka still injured, Moyes now has a problem in central defence, and either captain Phil Neville, usually a full-back or midfielder or young midfielder Jack Rodwell will have to step in for Lescott.