Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson branded Emanuel Pogatetz’s challenge on Rodrigo Possebon “horrendous” after the young Brazilian had to be stretchered off on his debut for the English and European champions.
Possebon was injured after 65 minutes of United’s 3-1 victory against Middlesbrough in the third round of the League Cup at Old Trafford following a studs-up challenge which earned the visiting captain a straight red card.
The challenge drew a furious response from Ferguson who remonstrated on the touchline with Middlesbrough coach Colin Cooper and had a heated debate with manager Gareth Southgate.
Ferguson was clearly still sickened by the incident.
“The boy is off to hospital and it looked a really bad one. For the kid to make his first team debut and get an injury like that, it was pretty horrendous to be honest with you,” Ferguson said.
“For 10 minutes after it, everyone was numb and we lost our momentum but the thing about those challenges is it is always the case that the opponent claims he is innocent,” he said.
“That’s what I couldn’t understand. He should have walked right off. One of their bench was screaming that he shouldn’t have been sent off and that there was nothing wrong with our player,” Ferguson said.
“At least Gareth Southgate apologized, he understood the gravity of it and was very, very apologetic but it was a terrible tackle. I’ve seen the video of it and I really don’t want to see it again,” he said.
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