Former Chelsea and Arsenal midfielder Lassana Diarra has denied rumours that he has become a jihadist in Syria.

Speculation regarding the Lokomotiv Moscow player recently appeared on social media claiming that he had gone to Syria amid the war, which is in its fourth year.

However, according to The Telegraph, Diarra's lawyer Eric Dupond Moretti said that the player "denies in the most formal, the most categoric, the most absolute fashion that he has gone to Syria".

"He has never set foot in Syria. It's absurd. He is not a jihadist, he is a footballer with Lokomotiv Moscow," Moretti said.

Diarra spent three years playing for Real Madrid.