Real Madrid defender and team captain Sergio Ramos has no regrets and no remorse about his altercations with two Liverpool players, winger Mohamed Salah and goalkeeper Loris Karius, in the UEFA Champions League Final.
It was revealed yesterday that Karius actually suffered a concussion during the match, although some are skeptical, including Chelsea/Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, about the German’s long after the fact diagnosis.
Ramos collided with Karius during the match, and the impact caused the Reds number one to fall to the pitch.
Ramos also collided with Salah, and the result of that altercation left the PFA Player of the Year with shoulder injury so severe that he’s likely to miss Egypt’s first two World Cup group stage games. It’s worth noting that Ramos was captured smiling after observing the Egyptian leaving the pitch early in tears.
The whole ugly episode resulted in a lawsuit from leading Egyptian business man. Ramos was been demonized by many football fans worldwide, not just Liverpool supporters. The Andalusian thinks his vilification is unwarranted, and undeserved.
“Bloody hell, it’s all been blown out of all proportion,” Ramos told Spanish publication AS while on international duty with La Roja.
“I didn’t want to talk but everything gets magnified. [Salah] pulls my arm first, and I fall on the other side. Then when his other arm is injured, they say that I’ve done a judo move on him. Then the goalkeeper says he is concussed after a clash with me.”
“Now it only needs Firmino to say he got the flu as a drop of my sweat fell on him.”
That’s a really snarky and defiant response from Ramos there. He certainly isn’t going to win over any of the Reds supporters who currently despise him with talk like that. The Spaniard went on to say that he’s spoken with Salah and that the two are on cordial terms.
He also said that he doesn’t believe Salah’s injury is really all that serious, citing his own past experience with a similar setback. And for good measure, he threw in a bit of the old “they hate us, cuz they ain’t us” routine.
“I’ve exchanged messages with Salah and he was pretty good,” he said. “If he had an injection he could have played the second half, I’ve done it sometimes. It was not such a big thing, but it seems if Ramos does it, it stands out a bit more.
“I don’t know if it is because you are at Madrid and you’ve won for so many years, people look on it in another way.”
Egyptian national team manager Hector Cuper completely rejected the idea Ramos put forth that the Premier League player of the year could have continued on in the UCL Final.
“Sergio Ramos said that with an injection he could have played the second half,” Cuper told a news conference ahead of the World Cup.
“I’m not a doctor, I don’t know if Ramos is a doctor, but it’s a player who is playing a final and has an injury, I’ve no doubt he would keep playing if it was possible. This is a Champions League final, something extraordinary that does not come around again in your life.”
“My opinion is that Salah has an important injury and is now recovering, we are optimistic that he can play at the World Cup. Many things are said, but the reality is what the doctors confirm.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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