Thursday 4 March 2010

De Jong in the headlines

And not in a good way.

A late tackle in last night's 2-1 win over the USA saw Bolton Wanderer's Stuart Holden fracturing his fibula, putting him out for six weeks. Our Nigel said:
'Such offences are part of football,' he said on www.knvb.nl. 'I went for the ball and got the opponent at the end. I had no evil intent. If the ball is between me and the opponent, you have to go in full. If you do not then the opponent takes you. And if you're scared in a game you get injured yourself.'



Everyone knows I love de Jong, and of course I recognise that severity of injury and malice of tackle do not correlate 100%, but it still is a bit of a shame to see that happening in an international friendly.

On the other hand, it might help Vladimir Weiss get a game for Bolton.

3 comments:

thomas said...

well it wasnt that bad, those tackles happen all the time! He wasnt high, like shawcross was with ramsey.

Unknown said...

Commiserations to Holden, USA and Bolton but in Defence of De Jong, his no. 5 team mate holds back Holden when De Jong was already committed. Central midfielders are much more likely to do damage as the tackles are rarely in the same direction as play, unlike on the wing.

Bluephill said...

It's a late challenge but you see them week-in week-out. Commiserations to Holden though, unfortunate to break his leg in what was not a particularly dangerous challenge.