Sarpei Suspended

Schalke's disciplinarian coach Felix Magath on Tuesday suspended the Royal Blues' trio of Jermaine Jones, Ghana defender Hans Sarpei and midfielder Alexander Baumjohann.

The three players have been banished to Schalke's reserves until December's winter break in the wake of the club's humiliating 5-0 defeat by Kaiserslautern on Saturday.

"I wasn't happy with Jermaine Jones' performance in the game and for the other two, I wasn't happy with their performances in training," said Magath.

Magath has already made sweeping changes at Gelsenkirchen-based Schalke by shortening his players' Christmas break to just six days and bringing the players in earlier for daily training.

The 57-year-old has yet to decide whether the players' training camp prior to the resumption of the Bundesliga season after the winter break will take place in the sunnier climes of Turkey or Portugal.

The former Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg coach said he would only decide after seeing how his players perform in the three matches prior to the winter break.

However, he was adamant that his squad -- who number among them Spanish icon Raul and Dutch star Klaas-Jan Huntelaar -- would only be free from after the cup match with second division Augsburg on December 21 until the 27th.

The Kaiserslautern defeat, the club's worst since September 1992, left Schalke 15th in the table, just two points above the relegation places.