Claude Makelele, the Real Madrid midfielder who refused to train with the Spanish club last week, worked out with the French national squad on Monday ahead of Wednesday's friendly against Switzerland.

Makelele, one of the lowest paid players in the Real squad, has refused to train with the Spanish champions since last Wednesday because the club are unwilling to grant him a pay rise or consider selling him to English premier league side Chelsea.

But Makelele set aside his problems on Monday to practise for two hours with his French team mates at the Colovray sports centre and grinned and waved to the big crowd of spectators.

Afterwards he avoided contact with reporters when French national coach Jacques Santini confirmed that his federation had received a faxed request from Madrid, asking that Makelele is not involved in France's preparation for the match.

Santini, avoiding any direct comment on Makelele's dispute with Madrid, said: "We received a fax today, from Madrid, but it was in Spanish and it was very difficult to understand it."

He acknowledged that he understood that Madrid did not want Makelele involved in Wednesday's match, but he made no further comment.

Other sources in the French party said, however, that the fax had been sent from Madrid to the French federation headquarters last Saturday, but that it had not been received by Santini until they arrived at their hotel in Nyon around midday on Monday.

The spokesman for the French squad, Philippe Tournon, said he had been given the fax to read and translate. He said it claimed that Makelele was not fit to train or play.

But, he explained, the French had decided to look closely at Makelele's condition and had talked to him and the squad's medical and physical training staff before inviting him to join the training sessions.

Makelele is understood to be seeking to improve his wages up to six or eight-fold in order that his value to the team is recognised.

He is paid far less than any of the so-called 'galacticos', the expensively-assembled array of foreign stars at the club, including fellow-Frenchman Zinedine Zidane, Portugal's Luis Figo, Brazil's Ronaldo and England captain David Beckham.

On Monday, in a clear show of defiance at the end of the orthodox training session, Makelele teamed up with Zidane in a two-against-two game of 'foot-tennis' against the Juventus pairing of Lilian Thuram and David Trezeguet only a few metres from a very crowded main stand packed with spectators.

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