Portuguese coach Sérgio Conceição, head coach of Al-Ittihad club, revealed the reasons behind Mario Mitaj's exclusion from the team roster for the fifth consecutive time, following Al-Ittihad's loss to Al-Ettifaq in the Roshn Saudi League.

During the press conference for the match, Conceição explained that Mitaj is still part of his tactical plans, denying any crisis or intention for the player to leave Al-Ittihad.

The Al-Ittihad coach confirmed that Mitaj's exclusion at this stage is due to technical reasons related to the foreign players' roster, and not because of a decline in performance or an injury.

Conceição pointed out that the rumors about disagreements or problems within the team are not true, emphasizing that the player is part of his future plans with the team.

The Portuguese coach had decided to exclude Mario Mitaj from the match against Al-Ettifaq purely for technical reasons, especially since the player is not suffering from any injury that would prevent him from participating.

Al-Ittihad suffered a 1-0 loss to Al-Ettifaq, with the only goal scored by Khaled Al-Ghannam through a powerful shot that found the back of the net past goalkeeper Predrag Rajković, in the match held at the Al-Inmae Stadium.