Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown has defended Heung-Min Son following the horror injury Andre Gomes suffered in Tottenham’s draw with Everton on Sunday.
Gomes appeared to break his ankle when falling to the ground as a result of a challenge from Son, though replays and images have since shown the Spurs forward was not to blame as Gomes suffered the injury after the tackle.
Son was shown a red card regardless, something Mauricio Pochettino took issue with. The Tottenham manager labelled the decision “completely unfair” before calling VAR “a big, big mess” and suggesting the club could appeal Son’s dismissal.
After the game, a number of ex-players – including Jamie Carragher, Tim Cahill and Louis Saha in the Sky Sports studio – defended Son, insisting the South Korean was not to blame for Gomes’ injury.
And later that night, Match of the Day 2 pundit Keown joined those voices by claiming the incident was a “freak accident”.
Keown said: “I understand why Martin Atkinson gave that red card, but I don’t think it was called for because it was one of those freak accidents. It really was – once you see it in its entirety.”
It’s pleasing to see former players come out in defence of Son, who will be offered psychological help by Tottenham in order to mentally recover from the incident, according to the Daily Mail.
[…] Replays and images showed Gomes appeared to sustain the injury when his leg planted in the moment between challenges from Son and Aurier. Of course, he would not have fallen in the first place had he not been tripped by Son, but the incident has been labelled a “freak accident”. […]