Darlington Nagbe will not train with Atlanta United while the team remains in California. He has trained with the team since it arrived in the Los Angeles area on Feb. 1.
The Atlanta United played a friendly Sunday against LAFC. The team has one more match, Wednesday against the L.A. Galaxy, before returning Thursday to Atlanta.
The club declined to say why Nagbe won’t train or who made the decision that he won’t train. Nagbe has declined several interview requests.
He did not play any minutes with the first team in its two previous friendlies this preseason.
Whatever the reason for Nagbe’s absence from training, goalkeeper Brad Guzan said it’s not a distraction, following the team’s 2-2 draw Sunday with LAFC.
“It’s between him and the club,” Guzan said. “I’ve known ‘D’ for a long time. He’s a great teammate. Us as players, us a team, where we will be is where we will be. From our standpoint, he’s obviously not here and we go about our business in a professional way.
“We don’t let that creep into what we do here. We continue to push each other to make sure we get better every day.”
Atlanta United acquired Nagbe in a trade with Portland in December 2017. Atlanta United vice president Carlos Bocanegra said that Nagbe was the team’s top target that offseason. The trade cost Atlanta United $750,000 in General Allocation Money, $300,000 in Targeted Allocation Money and an International spot.
In Nagbe’s 23 starts during the 2018 regular season, the team went 14-5-4. He was named to the 2018 MLS All-Star team but missed the game in Atlanta due to injury.
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