Roma coach Luciano Spalletti has denied that he was involved in a heated exchange with Francesco Totti outside the dressing room following Sunday's 3-3 draw at Atalanta.
Totti's 301st goal for Roma, scored in the 85th minute, saved them from defeat at Atalanta, but La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Spalletti exchanged insults with the veteran striker as the players returned to the dressing room after the match.
"What I read surprises me considering that, since I had been sent off, I was unable to go into the tunnel with the players," he wrote on the club's official website. "I waited for the players in the dressing room and obviously I had something to say to them considering I wasn't happy with how the game went.
"I deny in the most categorical of ways that there was an argument or worse still a physical fight with any of my players. I never put my hands on any of my players. This is enough time wasting. From tomorrow, we're all working on the game against Torino."
Sunday's draw meant Roma missed an opportunity to narrow the gap on second-placed Napoli to three points, while they are just four points ahead of fourth-placed Inter Milan in the battle for a place in the Champions League next season.
Despite Totti's heroics, Spalletti refused to shower the veteran with praise. The 39-year-old has cut an increasingly marginalised figure at the Stadio Olimpico this season and found himself omitted from the squad completely two months ago after publicly criticising Spalletti in a television interview.
"He's got a great shot on him and this enabled us to draw the match," he said. "He's part of the squad and does the work that all of the squad has to do.
"He could score that goal in three years' time too, but there are other things about him which people don't know about. If you work on it a bit, I'm sure they'll come out.
"It was not Totti who saved us, it was the whole team. All he did was shoot at goal like on other occasions. [The rest of the team] set it up well for him."