Football
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Sylvain Distin won't receive Everton send-off, says Roberto Martinez

Roberto Martinez has ruled out giving Sylvain Distin the chance to play one final game for Everton before the out-of-favour defender's expected departure.

Distin, who is out of contract at the end of the season, has not played for the club since January, and claims that manager Martinez has not spoken to him for more than three months.

The 37-year-old told French magazine L'Equipe that the communication breakdown came immediately after he rejected a move to West Ham on Feb. 2, the final day of the transfer deadline.

Martinez has downplayed suggestions of a fall-out with Distin, who moved to Goodison Park from Portsmouth in 2009.

But he dismissed the idea of giving the defender a send-off by recalling him for either of Everton's final two league games.

"I don't think so," the Everton boss told British newspapers. "We need to prepare for next season and we are not in a situation just to give a send-off to anyone for any reason."

Martinez has yet to confirm that Distin will leave when his contract runs out in June, but said it would be "odd" to offer a new deal to someone who has been out of the first-team squad for so long.

"Of course it would be odd," he said.

Distin suggested that there were hidden reasons behind his absence from the first team in a cryptic Twitter posting on May 8.

He wrote that the "truth always comes out" in a response to a Liverpool Echo article asking why he had not been selected for so long.

Martinez, though, insists that the main reason for Distin's absence has been the emergence of John Stones as Phil Jagielka's regular central defensive partner.

The manager said: "I'm sure that if he comes out and tells the truth, he's going to say the truth.

"His situation has never been an issue in terms of anything away from having a difficult period as a team defensively and you have to find the best partnership.

"You get a young man like John Stones who has emerged. You can only play 11 players.

"He's 37, he's had a phenomenal career, but we have a young man at the age of 20 who has created a really good partnership, and you have to make decisions for the good of the team, not to satisfy individuals."

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