GREEN BAY, Wis. — Martellus Bennett disputes that the Green Bay Packers should have released him with the “failure to disclose a physical condition” designation.

The veteran tight end was cut on Wednesday and claimed off waivers by the New England Patriots on Thursday.

Bennett signed a three-year, $21 million contract that included a $6.3 million signing bonus in free agency. He played in just seven games for the Packers.

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  Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett, formerly of the Packers, has been playing with a torn rotator cuff and torn labrum.

Bennett used his Instagram Story — the same avenue he used to post during the bye week that he was “pretty sure” he would retire after this season — to tell his side of the story.

“The packers examined my shoulder on my visit March 10 and cleared it,” he wrote. “They even gave me an xray as well. It got worse during the season, specifically against the Cowboys so I asked to have it checked out and we checked it. After a few days of contemplating to play with it or get surgery, I chose surgery. Now here we are …”

Bennett, however, passed his physical with the Patriots on Friday and was on the practice field. Still, he posted that he wasn’t happy that the Packers’ longtime team physician Dr. Pat McKenzie allegedly encouraged him to play. McKenzie, however, has long been known as one of the most conservative doctors around the league.

“They tried to f— me over,” Bennett continued on his Instagram story. “Dr. McKenzie trying to cover his own ass. After trying to persuade me to play thru a major injury and choosing to get surgery.

“They have access to all my medical records. My shoulder wasn’t where it is now at the beginning of the season. I f—– it up playing for the @packers.”

“Dr. McKenzie didn’t make [me] feel safe and was pushing to play, which I thought was weird. Not that he was trying to get me to play thru it but the way he was saying things. I didn’t trust him. So I got 3 other opinions from doctors who all said I need to get it fixed. So I decided to do that. And they decided to waive me the some bulls— excuse. Failure [to] disclose.

“Every week we do a body evaluation sheet in the weight room and pretty much every week I circled my shoulder. I just kept playing but it got worse.

“During the bye week I got off anti inflammatories to clean my system and could really feel the pain. So I asked to examine it first day back in. And that’s when we found out it was really f– up.”

“They knew.

“They panicked. Thinking that I was trying to go on IR and be on their books next year. When I mentioned that I would possible retire. So they tried to f— me before they thought I would f— them. This was all about money.”

“All about money. I get it. But don’t lie homie. You knew wtf was up.

“I had intentions of playing all 8 games as I mentioned in the post during the bye week, but found out it was worse than I felt after getting it checked out.

“Now I’m like f— it.

“I chose my health over the ‘team’. They chose money over me.”

The first public hint of a shoulder injury came after Bennett returned from the bye week. He practiced with the team during their first workout Tuesday but was on the field the next day and later showed up on the injury report.

The Packers did not have any comment after Bennett’s post, but Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson posted a statement on Twitter later on Friday to defend the organization and the medical team.

Earlier on Friday coach Mike McCarthy addressed the situation.

Former Barcelona metronome Xavi has decided to call it quits following the 2017-18 campaign in Qatar.

The 37-year-old, who’s currently the captain of Al-Sadd, told Catalan newspaper Sport he would remain in the game as a manager.

“I’ve had luck not to be injured and I think my career has come toward its end. There’s been a descent,” he said, as translated by Reuters. “Qatar allowed me this. Now I see myself being more tired. It’s harder to recover. It will surely be my last year of being a footballer.

“I have the idea of getting my coaching licence next year and being a coach.”

Those words will ring loudly in the corridors of Camp Nou, where he spent the vast majority of his celebrated two-decade career. The embodiment of Pep Guardiola’s possession football, Xavi made Barcelona’s passing game possible.

He won eight La Liga titles with the Blaugrana, three Copas del Rey, four Champions League trophies, and a pair of UEFA Super Cups. Xavi also won the 2010 World Cup in between two European Championship triumphs with Spain.

No one has appeared more times in a Barcelona shirt than Xavi, whose 767 outings confirm his status as one of the sport’s ironmen.

He moved to Al Sadd in 2015 and became an ambassador for Qatar’s World Cup committee. The gulf nation won the right to hold the 2022 edition despite reports of modern-day slavery and various human rights abuses.

Xavi’s Al-Sadd is currently in third place in the Qatar Stars League after seven matchdays.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. – Teddy Bridgewater is determined to leave any trepidation on the sideline whenever his first in-game snap comes after more than a year away from the game.

The Vikings quarterback said he never doubted that he would one day be able to resume his career where he left off after dislocating his left knee and tearing multiple ligaments at the end of the 2016 preseason. After 14 months of intense physical rehabilitation and training for his return, the mental hurdles of being back in a game where he’s susceptible to injury aren’t an issue for the quarterback.

“I honestly think I’m over them,” Bridgewater said. “I think I’m a mentally strong guy and the guys in this locker room helped reassure that.”

As part of his journey forward, Bridgewater has taken the time to reflect upon the struggles he faced in his recovery. He does so by pointing to times where he needed assistance to do everyday tasks like put his pants on or walk by himself. While some deeper self-actualization will eventually come once he’s progressed further, the quarterback hasn’t let seeing the spot on the field where he went down in practice take away from his focus.

“Once I get out there, in between those lines, I have no regrets, no doubt, I’m just out there living my dream, continuing to live my dream,” he said. “I pay no attention to the spot. I pay no attention to the play-action I did that day. Just give it my all. If it’s part of God’s plan, I’m all for it.”

This Sunday, Bridgewater will serve as a backup to Case Keenum against Washington. The last time Bridgewater entered a game as a non-starter came during his rookie season in 2014. Though the discussion of Bridgewater regaining his role as the starter will ramp up in coming weeks, the quarterback says he’s not focused on the switch right now.

As the corruption scandal engulfing FIFA hits the courtrooms, the 2022 World Cup is under the microscope.

On Thursday, FIFA’s Human Rights Advisory Board published its first report. In it, the advisory board recommends that FIFA press Qatar’s government about the impact of the kafala system on migrant workers involved in construction for the 2022 World Cup.

The kafala system is regarded as modern slavery, requiring migrant workers to obtain the consent of their employers to terminate their employment contracts. The report recommends that “FIFA actively explore ways to use its leverage to engage with the host government about the impact of the kafala system on migrant workers involved in World Cup-related construction.”

According to the Guardian’s David Conn, the number of workers in Qatar who are brought in from poorer countries – India, Nepal, Bangladesh – and who are employed to build eight stadiums for the 2022 World Cup, is expected to rise from 12,000 to 36,000 over the next year. The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, a quasi-governmental committee organising the tournament, told Human Rights Watch that they expect the number of workers on their projects to peak at around 35,000 by late 2018 or early 2019.

In September, Human Rights Watch said that thousands of migrant workers on construction sites in Qatar, including those building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup, are being subjected to “potentially life-threatening heat and humidity.” The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy classified eight deaths between October 2015 and July 2017 as “non-work-related,” listing seven of them as the result of “cardiac arrest” and “acute respiratory failure.” But, as Human Rights Watch pointed out, the terms “obscure the underlying cause of deaths and make it impossible to determine whether they may be related to working conditions, such as heat stress.”

The advisory board was created in early 2017 to provide “independent advice” on FIFA’s human-rights responsibilities. The expert group is comprised of eight representatives and includes members from the UN System, civil society, trade unions, and FIFA sponsors.

Fatma Samoura, FIFA’s general secretary, said: “This report shows that FIFA is making important progress in integrating respect for human rights throughout its wide range of activities. We are taking a pioneering role in that regard and feel privileged to be able to count on the outstanding support of the advisory board members. They validate the important progress that is taking place and challenge us where more is still to be done.”

Nicholas McGeehan, a researcher for Human Rights Watch who sounded the alarm about dangerous conditions in Qatar and the unexplained death of thousands of workers, sees the report as inadequate. He declared that it was “shocking” that explicit and urgent recommendations weren’t made to prevent workers from the dangerous conditions and investigate the unexplained deaths.

The International Trade Union Confederation welcomed a breakthrough to end the kafala system in October, announcing that new guidance and commitments made by Qatar’s government will dismantle the system.