Douglas Costa says Shakhtar Donetsk players' lives are at risk
Midfielder is among six South Americans refusing to return to the club because of the conflict in the country
Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Douglas Costa said he and his fellow players who refused to return to the Ukrainian champions did so because the conflict in the country puts their lives at risk.
Costa and five other South American players refused to travel with the rest of the team to Ukraine for yesterday's first match of the season.
The players "all run a deadly risk if we are in the region", Costa said on his Instagram page. He said he and the other five absent players wanted to train in Switzerland during the conflict and were not seeking a transfer.
It's a true scandal. [The agent] took advantage of the situation to abduct them
"I like the club, the people, the city, but I'm afraid," he said in comments posted alongside a picture of the Shakhtar badge. "We want to stay at the club, but we must have risk-free working conditions."
Costa, 23, has been with Shakhtar since 2010, winning five straight Ukrainian titles and reaching the Champions League quarter-finals in 2010-11.
Uefa denied intervening in the situation after Shakhtar general director Sergei Palkin claimed to Russian agency R-Sport that Uefa "recommends that our players who have left the team return as soon as possible".
The city of Donetsk is held by pro-Russian rebels who are battling Ukrainian forces, and is around 60km from the site where Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crashed on Thursday with 298 people on board.