Former Manchester City left-back Benjamin Mendy is suing his former employers for taking "unauthorised deductions" from his wage while his rape and sexual assault case was ongoing in 2021.

The French defender joined City from Monaco in 2017 for a fee of £52million, which saw the Ligue 1 club dismantled with the likes of Bernardo Silva, Kylian Mbappe, Joao Moutinho and Fabinho all departing the club after they reached the Champions League semi-finals. Mendy started well at City, but in a spell that became clad with errors he fell out of the first-team picture due to inconsistency.

Then in August 2021, Cheshire Constabulary charged the Parisian with four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, remanding him in custody. Three different female complainants alleged the offences had happened between October 2020 and August 2021, and whilst in custody he was charged with three more counts of rape, though he pleaded not guilty to all of the accounts.

In June 2022 he was charged with yet another count of rape - but with the trial coming to a head back in January, he was found not guilty of six counts of rape whilst the jury couldn’t reach a verdict on another count of rape and one count of attempted rape, with the same verdict being reached after a a retrial in July.

Throughout all this the left-back was still employed by City, with his last game coming for the Premier League title holders in August 2021 and City announced they would release him in June just gone, where he has been signed by Ligue 1 club Lorient.

Yet with the defender now back in his home country, Sky Sports report he has filed a claim with the Employment Tribunal - citing "unauthorised deduction from wages" after he was charged in August 2021. Mendy is now seeking the return of pay that he is owed until the end of his contract, which finished on June 30, 2023.

Barrister Nick de Marco, who works in the area of Commercial and Employment Law, is acting as Mendy’s defendant, and he stated: “Manchester City FC failed to pay Mr Mendy any wages at all from September 2021, following Mr Mendy being charged with various offence all of which he was subsequently acquitted of, until the end of his contract in June 2023. The claim will come before an Employment Tribunal."

Mendy has made his debut for Lorient since, making three appearances for the Brittany-based outfit.