Manchester United centre-back Victor Lindelof has left the Sweden camp under mysterious circumstances, with reports varying on the reason behind it.

Lindelof, who has been dealing with a back injury in recent weeks, played 90 minutes in both of Sweden’s World Cup qualifiers against Kosovo and Georgia, but he surprisingly left the squad on Monday.

When asked to explain Lindelof’s departure, Sweden assistant Peter Wettergren said (via Metro): „He will leave us tonight for private, personal reasons.“

That all seems fair enough, but according to Sportbladet, the situation has nothing to do with ‚personal reasons‘ and Lindelof has been ordered to return to United for further treatment on his back.

Both United and Sweden are said to have accepted that Lindelof needs to rest his back and the national team are prepared to do without him for Wednesday’s friendly against Estonia, so he has been sent back to Old Trafford to try and prevent any further damage.

That’s a perfectly reasonable explanation, but not only have Sweden refused to discuss it, they have actually doubled-down on their ‚personal reasons‘ excuse.

„The information that Peter gave is the one we give. What we are commenting on is that he is leaving for private and personal reasons,“ said manager Stefan Pettersson, who also insisted there was no agreement with United at all.

What’s going on?

Speaking before his side’s meeting with Georgia, Lindelof confessed that his back has been causing him problems, but he insisted he was not expecting to run into any problems with it.

„I’ve had problems for a long time, but it’s mostly after matches that I have some problems,“ he said. „But that should not be a problem now.

„It’s mostly about taking care of my back after matches so I can be ready. I take it day by day. There should probably be no problems.“

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