Marcelo Bielsa unaware of Leeds United plan for Kiko Casilla, will continue supporting his player

Bielsa, who made it clear that supporting the Spaniard should not be interpreted as being in favour of racism, also expressed the view that victims of racist abuse deserved solidarity.

Casilla is currently serving an eight-game ban having been found guilty of using racist language against Jonathan Leko in a game at Charlton back in September.

An independent regulatory commission decided that Casilla had, on the balance of probability, used the n-word towards the West Brom player, who was then on loan to the Addicks.

Bielsa was asked if Leeds would be taking any internal disciplinary action against Casilla or if he would play for the club again.

“I don’t know the club’s position,” said the head coach, who revealed that Casilla is still training with the first team during his suspension.

“The people who have to judge Kiko have judged, the people who represent the club in some way, what we do is accept the authorities’ decisions.

“Authorities have the right to judge what they judge and when the club is part of a competition they know the authorities have the right to judge like they did in this situation or another different situation. When you accept the regulations, when you are part of a competition you have to accept all the decisions.”

Leko released a statement on Wednesday night expressing disappointment with what he saw as a lack of support from anti-discrimination groups and the Professional Footballers Association [PFA].

Bielsa said anyone who experiences racism deserves support.

“Any person who suffers racist abuse, this person deserves the solidarity, the support of everybody,” he said.

Casilla will also continue to enjoy the support of Bielsa.

“A person who is sanctioned for racism we know that this is going to have an impact on his spirit,” he said.

“Of course any of us can be in a bad personal moment, for any reason and we try to act in a human way.

“What we should avoid when we express ourself – and for this reason I try to take care of the words I am using – I don’t want people to interpret that supporting Kiko in this moment means we are in favour of racism.

“For this reason I say again, every person who suffers racist abuse deserves the support of all of us.

“But if any colleague of ours for any reason is suffering, we act in the human way.”