Tottenham have appealed to the English Football Association against Son Heung-min’s dismissal at Everton on Sunday, which led to Andre Gomes’s horrific injury.
The Spurs winger tripped Gomes in the 79th minute of the 1-1 draw, sending him crashing towards Serge Aurier with dire consequences and, initially, the referee, Martin Atkinson, reached for a yellow card.
Yet Atkinson upgraded his decision to a straight red when he realised how severely Gomes had been injured – the Portuguese midfielder suffered a fractured dislocation of the right ankle – and it has left Son facing a three-game domestic ban.
There is tremendous sympathy at Spurs for Gomes and, equally, an amazement that his plight led to Son being punished more harshly. As things stand, Son will miss the Premier League games against Sheffield United (home), West Ham (away) and Bournemouth (home). Spurs hope the appeal will change that.
Ben Davies has said Gomes's injury deeply affected everyone in the Tottenham and Everton teams on Sunday but Son did not intentionally hurt the Portugal international.
Players from both teams were visibly distraught as Gomes received treatment on the pitch before being taken to Aintree Hospital. Everton equalised in time added-on mainly for the injury and Davies, the Spurs captain on the day, admitted it was difficult to remain focused afterwards.
Davies said: “It does affect you. It’s not the first time it has happened to me in a game, it happened when Séamus Coleman suffered a bad injury for Ireland [against Wales] as well. It shakes you up, it really does. It doesn’t matter if it’s your team-mate or not. You can see the emotion across the pitch.
"Nobody goes on the pitch to hurt anyone, especially not somebody like Son, who is a bit broken dealing with what has happened. The team just have to sometimes say these things happen in football and, as horrible as it is, they do. For us it is just hoping Andre Gomes is okay now.
“Son is really shaken up,” added Davies. “He’s down about what happened. I speak for everyone when I say sympathy for Gomes, I hope he’s all right. We will try to pick him [Son] up as much as we can. It’s tough right now. It’s just about making sure that he realises he didn’t go out there to hurt anyone, he thinks that people may see that in him but it’s not the case.
“It’s one of those things. There were probably three more tackles that were worse than the incident that happened. It’s a freak moment in football. Son can’t let himself be too down about it.” – Guardian
