Hull City manager Steve Bruce has complained that midfielder Stephen Ireland should have been sent off for his challenge on defender Maynor Figueroa.
The latter suffered an injury in the recent 1-0 defeat against Stoke City. More than the result, Bruce is left contemplating about the fitness of one of its important players because of what he feels is a very harsh challenge from Ireland. The former Aston Villa and Manchester City midfielder has been a regular feature of this Stoke City team, which has been trying to shake off its physical image under Mark Hughes.
However, there have been certain occasions when Stoke continue to play a physical style of football, which opponents find it very difficult to deal with. It was once again the case on Saturday afterFigueroa failed to recover sufficiently from the tackle. After the match, Bruce revealed thatFigueroa received as much as 15 stitches because of the horrific tackle. Career ending tackles have been the topic of the Premier league over the last five years with referees not being afraid to show a straight red card in such incidents. Bruce feels that a red card and a three match ban would have been the perfect punishment for Ireland.
“He committed the worst challenge on the pitch on David Meyler. He shouldn’t have been on the pitch if the referee had done his job. I could show you a picture of Figueroa’s ankle, he had five stitches in it and carried on.Nobody wants to see a cut or an had but unfortunately in football it happens. Everybody is wearing the boots called blades and the challenge on Ireland, he’s kicked the ball and followed through and unfortunately has caught his leg,” said the former Manchester United defender about Ireland.