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Real Salt Lake winger Joao Plata has landed himself in hot water with RSL coach Mike Petke after missing a flight to Salt Lake City yesterday and arriving at training late today.
That’s from Salt Lake Tribune reporter Chris Kamrani, who spoke to Petke at training.
Mike Petke said there's no injury for Joao Plata. Instead explains why the RSL forward trained off to the side today at America First Field. pic.twitter.com/vo6kj85TcF
— Chris Kamrani (@chriskamrani) May 2, 2017
Plata missed his plane last night, and failed to show up on time, and I won’t accept that. The players know that. I don’t know how it’s been in the past, I don’t care how it’s been in the past. Accountability and being on time ... being on time is not a rule. It’s a given. So he showed up late and will not be involved in practice today. He ran to the side. Simple as that.
This is the first time we’ve publicly seen Petke exercise the disciplinarian side of his coaching character, and it’s hard to imagine it coming at a trickier time for Real Salt Lake.
An Instagram story from Plata posted on Saturday or Sunday showed the winger in New York City, and presumably, he was there recreationally.
On Feb. 27, a multi-year contract extension was announced for Plata. That contract made him a designated player. Given this most recent news, there seems to be a degree of uncertainty about his status at Real Salt Lake.