Sunderland’s £5m deal to sign the Zenit St Petersburg defender Nicolas Lombaerts has collapsed – but the player has denied that he failed a medical.
The 30-year-old Belgium international was a target for Dick Advocaat and rumours that he had failed a medical began to circulate on Tuesday evening. Lombaerts, who suffered a serious knee injury in 2008 but has played more than 200 times for Zenit since then, is understood to have had a medical on Monday.
Lombaerts told the Belgian publication Sporza, in comments reported by the Belgian journalist Kristof Terreur: “I took the decision myself. I didn’t want to join Sunderland. The story about a failed medical is untrue.”
Lombaerts was further quoted by the Belgian Twitter handle @Sportifun as saying that he wanted to stay at Zenit, where the club fight for trophies every season.
There was more positive news for Advocaat on the Dynamo Kiev midfielder Jeremain Lens, who is expected on Wearside for a medical after the two clubs agreed a fee in the region of £8m.
The 27-year-old, who worked under his compatriot at both AZ Alkmaar and PSV Eindhoven, watched his current club’s 2-0 Ukrainian Super Cup defeat by Shakhtar Donetsk in Odessa from the stands on Tuesday before setting off for England.
Sunderland are hopeful of concluding a deal within days to allow the player to meet up with the rest of the squad in America, where they lost 1-0 to Sacramento Republic during the early hours of Wednesday morning.