• Del Bosque: ‘It seems that he has done nothing and I have to believe him’ • Spain coach says he is undecided over whether keeper will play on Monday

Vicente del Bosque has insisted the Spain squad will offer “support and affection” to David de Gea, after the goalkeeper was named in a sexual assault case.

The 25-year-old has denied any involvement in the case after being named by a protected witness as the person who allegedly arranged and paid for an encounter between two Spain Under-21 players and two women in a Madrid hotel in 2012. According to a report published by the website ElDiario.es on Friday, one of the under-21 players is named as the Athletic Bilbao forward Iker Muniain while the other has not been identified. In a short statement Muniain’s agent, Jesús Medina, denied any knowledge of the alleged case.

David de Gea named in sexual assault case but denies any involvement Read more

Del Bosque, the Spain coach, said: “I think De Gea has given all the explanations he had to give and he has made it clear that he has nothing to do with this issue. He said that to the whole squad too.

“We all met up and the lad, calmly and sincerely, has explained that he has nothing to do with this issue. The squad is here to support him at all times and to give him the affection he needs at these times. Everything is normal and we’ll carry on.”

On Friday, De Gea remained adamant that he would continue to train as normal and said he had already received “great support from my team-mates”.

De Gea also confirmed the matter is now in the hands of his lawyers. “I am very, very calm,” said De Gea. “I know what I do with my life. It is all false. I have no idea [where it comes from] and how it came to be in the press. It’s a way of sullying someone’s image. That’s it.”

Del Bosque confirmed there had been no suggestion of De Gea leaving the squad’s Saint-Martin-de-Ré training base, near La Rochelle in south-west France, despite the goalkeeper being accused of arranging an encounter between players and women.

“We have never considered [sending De Gea home]. This was a surprise for us,” said Del Bosque. “We waited for the lad’s explanations. It seems that he has done nothing and I have to believe him.”

Asked whether the goalkeeper would play against the Czech Republic in their Group D opener in Toulouse on Monday, the 65-year-old said: “We’re in a period of reflection and we have to think it over. You have to think things over in life. I can’t say whether he will start or not.”

The forward Pedro Rodríguez said Spain’s performance at Euro 2016 would not be affected by the situation surrounding De Gea. “I think this doesn’t affect [us],” Pedro said. “We know what happened. We have trained well, including De Gea. All we’re thinking about is the game; there’s a good togetherness. We’re very up for it. Winning the first game is important and from there we can grow as a team and our confidence will increase.”

He added: “Del Bosque has to decide on the team. I don’t think that the news will influence him at all.”

De Gea has said he has the support of team-mates. Two of them, Gerard Piqué and Jordi Alba, attended his press conference on Friday as a show of support.

Spain had arrived in France filled with doubts after the disappointing 1-0 defeat to Georgia at home on Tuesday, a game that Del Bosque said was supposed to boost the team’s confidence going into tournament but instead raised some doubts. “We really want to start playing,” the midfielder Koke said. “It’s true that we had a setback, but it’s better that it happened then and not during the Euros.”

The Czech Republic also lost their final warm-up match, falling 2-1 to South Korea in Prague. Just a few days earlier, Spain had comfortably beaten South Korea 6-1 in Austria.