Midfielder Kingston has angered his manager by revealing he will always put his country before his club after turning out for Ghana twice in the past week, despite Laszlo insisting he was not fit to play.

Kingston, 28, returned to Hearts today after featuring in last night's 4-3 friendly defeat by Japan.

Laszlo will now discuss the player's future with his board and, while he would not confirm this morning what action he would be recommending, the manager left little doubt about his feelings on the matter.

"We would like to handle the situation very clearly," he said. "If you are a professional player, your duty is to improve every day, to give 120% in training, to be always better and better and better.

"If you only come in my dressing room to keep your fitness, you can always go. You can do this in an amateur team. The door is always open for you to go out."

Laszlo said he expected every player to work their hardest for the club, adding: "If you don't do this, you are not a professional sportsman, you are an amateur."

It is the second time in the past year Kingston has defied Laszlo's wishes and played for Ghana after Hearts have declared him unfit. The midfielder, whose contract is up in the summer, has not featured at all for the club this season due to a persistent knee injury.

Laszlo said: "It's also our duty as a club to defend ourselves and tell everybody we are not here to pay wages, to [look after] his fitness and then he would like not to do his job.

"You go to the office and tell your boss, 'Okay, I am here, but I don't have any passion here – my passion is to go in the afternoon and meet some friends. But give me the money and pay the wages'."

Laszlo, who coached Hungary and Uganda before joining Hearts, added: "You are an employee of the club. You get your performance for the national team from the club. I was myself a national coach and my duty was also to go always to the clubs to talk with the club managers and coaches.

"I always picked the players who were in the best form and not just 'names'. To ignore the club at this level is very strange for me and also I think this is not okay."

He added: "This club is not Larry Kingston; this club is Hearts of Midlothian."

Laszlo revealed he had pleaded with Kingston to pull out of the Ghana squad for the friendly with Japan and the match against Sudan days earlier, which saw Ghana qualify for the World Cup.

"I said before this game against Sudan, 'Look, Larry, you haven't trained, you were injured all the time, you don't have a pre-season'," said Laszlo, who had considered Kingston as a candidate for the captaincy this summer.

"'You have two weeks; you can talk with us to have extra training. You can help the team; you have experience'.

"He told me, 'Okay, but my interest is the national team'."

Meanwhile, Laszlo confirmed he had held clear-the-air talks with Vladmir Romanov after the Hearts owner refused to sanction the signing of another striker before the transfer window closed.

The snub threatened to open a rift between the pair and Laszlo even hinted he could quit.

But he said today: "If you begin to make a war internally, it doesn't help me, it doesn't help the club, it doesn't help the players."