Norwich head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup revealed his captain Shane Duffy had been dropped for disciplinary reasons after watching his side held to a 1-1 Championship draw with Oxford at Carrow Road.
The Republic of Ireland defender, who had been an ever present in the English second tier this season, was dropped to the bench after turning up late for a pre-match meeting earlier in the day.
"Shane was late - and the culture of this football club is clear. There are some simple rules and if a player makes a mistake there will be consequences," said Thorup.
"He didn't do it on purpose and without going into too much detail, he was a bit unlucky with what happened. But it was an easy decision for me to make. These sort of things can happen, but they should not happen."
Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson brought Duffy into his squad for the Nations League games against Finland and England before Christmas. On Thursday he is due to unveil his squad for Nations League promotion/relegation play-off with Bulgaria.
Norwich took the lead after just five minutes as they sliced through the Oxford defence with some slick football down the right.
Callum Doyle produced a peach of a pass to pick out the overlapping Kellen Fisher and the youngster's low cross was judged perfectly for Josh Sargent to apply the finishing touch from close range for his 12th goal of the season.
Oxford levelled after 18 minutes when a Will Vaulks long throw took a couple of deflections before falling for Mark Harris, who coolly converted from close range.
From then on it was all Norwich, but the visitors defended stoutly to come away with a hard-earned draw that lifted them eight points clear of the relegation zone.
