Gary Megson, the Bolton Wanderers manager, may take the drastic step of excluding Abdoulaye Meïté from the club's relegation struggle to avoid damaging team morale after the Ivory Coast defender enraged senior colleagues by refusing to emerge for the second half of Wednesday's 2-0 defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Meïté's future appears certain to lie away from the Barclays Premier League club after he removed his football boots during the interval in the wake of criticism by Megson for his part in the two goals conceded to Cristiano Ronaldo. He is understood to have claimed that he could not appear for the second half because of an injury, despite club physiotherapists assuring Megson that the central defender was fit to continue.

His apparent lack of commitment at a time when Bolton and Megson require every member of the squad to be devoted to the cause of staying up is understood to have brought complaints from team-mates, who, along with backroom staff, failed to convince Meïté to return for the second period. He is, however, believed to have trained yesterday.

Meïté has had a turbulent season after reportedly clashing with Gary Speed, the former Bolton midfield player, in a training session before the Uefa Cup match away to Red Star Belgrade in December. It now looks as if he will leave the Reebok Stadium at the end of the season, regardless of whether Bolton retain their Premier League status. He is unlikely to play again this season.

The timing of Meïté's extraordinary behaviour adds to the problems for Megson, who is battling to prevent relegation to the Coca-Cola Championship after five successive Premier League defeats. The defeat by United leaves Bolton two points adrift of safety and with games against Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur to come.

“When I arrived after ten or so games we were looking at the Championship and everybody was doom and gloom,” Megson said. “Things change as your results change and there has to be a realisation that it can still go the other way. We've got to get back into the pack and get this gap out the way, and then move on from there.

“I've been in tougher situations than this before. I know the players and I know what we've got. I've been at places before when I knew we were going down the minute we arrived.”

Megson took some positives from the defeat at Old Trafford and believes that his team can pick up points against United's neighbours, Manchester City, tomorrow. “There was some good stuff in the first half against United, but when you give a team of that quality a two-goal start it's going to be difficult,” he said. “The way we went about our work in the second half, we've got to make sure we pick up in the same way against City as we left off against United.

“We've got to keep that going for the rest of the season to give ourselves a chance of getting out of this.”