23 Jul 2014

Latinos stay away from Shakhtar

4:24 pm on 23 July 2014

One of the six Shakhtar Donetsk football players refusing to return to Ukraine says he's not abandoning the club, but is scared of putting his life at risk.

Douglas Costa - along with fellow Brazilians Alex Teixeira, Fred, Dentinho and Ismaily, plus Argentine striker Facundo Ferreira - refused to travel from France to Ukraine following a friendly against Lyon last weekend.

The players' action came two days after 298 people aboard a Malaysian Airlines flight died when their plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine.

On social media Costa says everything they read, see or hear is that the situation in the country is not good.

He says he likes the club, the people, the city, but he's afraid about other conflict situations and security when they're travelling.

Shakhtar opened the new season on Wednesday by beating arch-rivals Dynamo Kiev 2-0 in the Super Cup.