It emerged this morning that there was more to Shane Long's comforting of a stricken Séamus Coleman than met the eye, as the fallout from Neil Taylor's horrendous tackle on Ireland's captain continues.
Images still circulating on social media of Coleman's double leg-break would still drain the blood from your face, and there remains a sense that it could have been so different. Not better or worse, however. Equally bad, just for a different player.
Mere moments before Taylor lost his mind and lunged into the oncoming Coleman, Welsh talisman Gareth Bale committed a similarly reckless foul on John O'Shea, propelling himself studs up into O'Shea's left leg as the Waterford man attempted a clearance. The crowd went ape, their noise and derision perhaps playing a role in Taylor's leg-breaking challenge which followed.
Bale was fortunate to receive just a yellow card; while there may have been no intent to harm O'Shea, it was a flying challenge which could so easily have resulted in O'Shea suffering a similar injury to Coleman.
Speaking to The Press Association's North-East sports reporter, Damian Spellman, O'Shea revealed he required a number of stitches after Bale's challenge, and considered himself fortunate not to have been worse off.
Maybe [it was late], but thankfully I'm walking away from it, which is no problem.
I've had plenty of stitches put in there. I was lucky considering what has happened to Seamus. On another night there could have been two red cards.
I can't remember how many stitches it was. The doctor had to stick some in deep and a few dissolvable ones on top. Hopefully it will heal quickly.
O'Shea also explained that he had no hard feelings towards Chris Coleman, who inevitably defended his players to the hilt following what transpired to be a rather ill-tempered game.
As the opposition manager, you're going to protect your own players. In a derby game, you're going to expect some tasty tackles - but, as I said, within reason.
There's no problem getting a hard tackle - but if it's late, it's a different story.
Bale himself offered a strange defence of his challenge on O'Shea, suggesting that O'Shea 'kind of kicked him', and that he 'collided' with the Irish defender. You can watch that here.
[Damian Spellman's quotes via Irish Independent]
