Nicolas Lombaerts denies failing medical: 'I didn't want to join Sunderland'

Nicolas Lombaerts holds a very different version of why his transfer from Zenit St. Petersburg to Sunderland collapsed.

In conversation with Belgian publication Sporza, Lombaerts denied that he failed a medical at Sunderland on Monday - as reports had suggested - and argued that he instead made a conscious decision not to sign for the Tyne-Wear club.

"I took the decision myself," Lombaerts said, according to the Guardian. "I didn't want to join Sunderland. The story about a failed medical is untrue."

Lombaerts suffered a serious knee injury in 2008 but recovered, and has now featured for Zenit more than 200 times.