Stefano Okaka "knows, as does the whole club" why he has not been in the Hornets' squad since August, says head coach Marco Silva.

The Watford Observer yesterday ran an article stating Okaka claimed he did not know why he had been marginalised from the first team for the past two months, having not made a match-day squad since the 2-0 win over Bournemouth on August 19.

While Silva did not reference it directly, he made clear that in his mind there had been more to the omission of the Italian striker than the forward himself wants to make public.

"I don't normally like talking about individuals, but I will talk about Okaka because many, many people have written a lot of lies about the situation," he said.

"He started the first match against Liverpool. In the second match, he was on the bench. The third match, was the League Cup, he didn’t stay on the bench; we changed a lot of players.

"Until that moment it was a technical decision only. After that, it was more than that.

"For me it’s clear, for everyone to understand. Okaka knows why he didn’t play. Marvin [Zeegelaar] hasn’t played one minute, neither has Jerome [Sinclair], but there have been some lies written about the situation."

Silva did make reference to the way Okaka's absence has been handled - with no public reference to his exile - and suggested it could have been dealt with differently had the club had their time again.

"The situation with Okaka, he knows why he hasn’t played until now," he said.

"Everyone in the club knows what has happened. Maybe in that moment, we have solved it in a different way, but that is a different way and he has been training with us every day.

"He knows why in some moments he didn’t stay in the squad, and everyone in the club knows that too."