Liam Rosenior has refused to be drawn on Enzo Fernández‘s agent’s criticism of Chelsea but insisted “things aren’t what people maybe think they are” regarding the player’s future.

Fernández was dropped for Saturday’s 7-0 FA Cup quarterfinal thrashing of League One strugglers Port Vale, but attended the game in support of his teammates.

The 25-year-old will also miss next weekend’s Premier League clash with Manchester City after twice casting doubt over his future, initially in an interview with ESPN Argentina after the club’s Champions League exit to Paris Saint-Germain.

Fernández went further when speaking during the international break, suggesting “I’d like to live in Spain, I really like Madrid” amid ongoing speculation over a possible move to Real Madrid.

He has a contract at Stamford Bridge until 2032 and sources have told ESPN they value Fernández in excess of £100 million ($132m).

Rosenior claimed Fernández had “crossed a line” and sanctioned the player with what is effectively a two-game ban.

However, Fernández’s agent Javier Pastore branded the decision “completely unfair.”

“We don’t understand the punishment because he doesn’t mention any club or say he wants to leave Chelsea,” Pastore said.

Asked about Pastore’s intervention, Rosenior said: “That’s his opinion. I don’t have anything to say on someone else’s opinion. Enzo knows what I think of him and it was brilliant to see him here to support the players today.

“We’ll move forward and make sure we have a really good run-in in the season.

“I said yesterday, the conversations I have with my individual players, with Enzo, with anyone in the squad when it comes to things like this, stay within.

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Gibbs: Chelsea’s huge Port Vale win ‘a step in the right direction’

Kieran Gibbs reacts to Chelsea’s much-needed FA Cup win over Port Vale after an eventful week off the pitch.

“The dressing room is sacred. I made it really clear what I think of him as a person.

“He’s a top, top guy. But at the same time, I want us now to focus on the football and achieve what we want to achieve through the season.”

Rosenior was pushed to answer whether Fernández felt the suspension was unfair.

“In the right time, in the right moment, which isn’t now, going through what we’ve gone through, I’m sure the discussion will happen in terms of what’s been said between me and Enzo,” the Chelsea boss said.

“Enzo and I are in a very good place. I saw him today, had a really good conversation with him today one-to-one, and things aren’t what people maybe think they are.”

Chelsea eased to victory through goals from Jorrel Hato and João Pedro before an own goal from Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel put the Blues 3-0 up at the break.

– Enzo Fernández’s agent: Chelsea punishment ‘completely unfair’
– ‘Not a leader’ – John Obi Mikel slams Chelsea’s Enzo Fernández
– Chelsea hammer Port Vale 7-0 in FA Cup quarterfinal

Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Estêvão and an Alejandro Garnacho penalty ensured Chelsea reached the semifinals.

However, Rosenior revealed they had suffered a fresh injury blow after Jamie Gittens sustained another setback.

“Unfortunately, Jamie, in training yesterday, picked up what looks like a hamstring injury again,” Rosenior said.

“We have to scan him and make sure.

“It’s a real shame for him, I think it’s the third time it’s happened. We need to help him and we need to make sure he’s ok. I can’t give you a time frame on that at the moment.”

The UConn Huskies men’s basketball team is headed back to the national championship game for the third time in the last four years after defeating the Illinois Fighting Illini in the Final Four.

The Huskies, who were leading by as much as 14 points, fended off a late 10-0 run from Illinois to keep their championship hopes alive. Tarris Reed Jr. ended the run with a lay-up in the paint, then a turnover led to a Solo Ball one-handed slam.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

They don’t come any tougher — especially mentally — than Dawn Staley. She didn’t, by accident, drive her way out of North Philadelphia to become an All-American, All-WNBA and Olympic gold medal-winning player, and then an iconic, hard-charging national championship-winning coach.

So here’s guessing she’ll be fine, or already is fine, no matter the strange and wild outburst she endured from Geno Auriemma on Friday after her South Carolina Gamecocks defeated his UConn Huskies 62-48 in the national semifinals.

“We move on,” Staley said on ESPN, still seeming bewildered by what exactly had happened.

Indeed, she and her team move on to bigger and more important things, namely Sunday’s national championship game against UCLA, where Staley could win her fourth title as a coach.

Staley shouldn’t spend a second looking backward.

It’s Auriemma who needs to figure out how to deal with this. Not just in trying to make amends — he issued an apology Saturday (in which he didn’t mention Staley by name) that he should have delivered immediately. More importantly, he needs to keep it from ever happening again, because he has too much to lose if he doesn’t.

To recap, Auriemma began barking at Staley during the postgame handshake, which should have been congratulatory but instead got contentious. There these two were, shouting in each other’s faces, having to be held back by assistant coaches.

It was like some cartoonish WWE bit (it’s not like Staley was going to back down, after all). And it was over, what exactly?

Auriemma kept trying to dodge the question postgame before finally saying he was troubled that Staley hadn’t shaken his hand before the game (she actually had) and that he had stood around for “three minutes” waiting for her to meet him at center court.

“I just said what I had to say,” Auriemma said.

Except it didn’t need to be said. Whatever perceived slight Geno felt should have been internalized. He would never accept a player being thrown off her game from such a minor incident.

Instead, in a fit, he came across as petty, personal and completely unbecoming of who he’s always been.

Some of that sanity sunk in by Saturday afternoon.

“There’s no excuse for how I handled the end of the game vs. South Carolina,” Auriemma said in a statement. “It’s unlike what I do and what our standard is here at Connecticut.

“I want to apologize to the staff and the team at South Carolina,” he continued. “It was uncalled for in how I reacted. The story should be how well South Carolina played, and I don’t want my actions to detract from that. I’ve had a great relationship with their staff, and I sincerely want to apologize to them.”

Auriemma is an absolute legend in women’s basketball; a Hall of Famer, a gold medal-winning coach, a 12-time NCAA champion. Maybe most remarkably, 41 years into his career, he’s as good as ever. UConn is, at least until Sunday, still the reigning national champion. The loss to South Carolina broke a 54-game winning streak.

It’s more than just all these victories — 1,288 of them, at a .886 clip. It’s how he won them.

An Italian immigrant who grew up in Philly himself, Auriemma did it with intensity, bravado, charisma and unapologetic competitiveness. He took no quarter. He never accepted that women’s basketball should take a back seat to anything.

He’s never been for everyone. His scraps through the years have extended from NCAA administrators to chief rival Pat Summitt to even UConn colleague Jim Calhoun, who built a dueling powerhouse on the men’s side in Storrs.

Auriemma, along with Summitt and others, helped redefine women’s sports by ignoring a society that saw women athletes as fragile and instead coaching them just as athletes, thus driving them to levels no one saw as possible.

In the process, he lifted the entire sport by redefining greatness, annually raising the bar and by doing it in the Northeast, backyard to the national media.

You can’t write the history of women’s basketball, or basketball at all, without Geno Auriemma. The entire operation owes him.

Which is what makes Friday so disappointing to even his greatest fans.

At age 72, he needs to be particularly mindful of his actions. He needs to be supportive, not petulant; gracious, not emotional. He’s the elder statesman, not the kick-down-the-door young guy. Lashing out is an act of ego and immaturity. He’s better than such antics.

He needs to lift others up, even after bitter defeats, not try to tear them down.

He’s done too much, accomplished too many things, positively impacted too many people to tarnish his legacy in the final chapters of what is otherwise one of the greatest stories ever told.