Ian Wright has jumped to the defence of Eni Aluko, telling critics of her that they need to "grow up".
It comes after Aluko, who made 102 appearances for England throughout a glittering career, made an innocent mistake before Brazil's comfortable victory over South Korea in the last 16 of the World Cup last night.
Aluko was speaking about Richarlison and the Tottenham strikers record for his national team.
“He’s the top scorer for Brazil over the last two years.. He’s for a great record - 19 goals in 40 games, do the math and it’s a goal-a-game pretty much.”
Criticism for Aluko flooded in with a video showing the error reaching four million views in less than twenty-four hours.
Wright, who is also working as a pundit on ITV for the duration of the tournament, was quick to defend his colleague.
“I've made countless mistakes live on air. The replies to this are horrible. You man are so pressed by women in football that you take pure pleasure in this. Grow up," he tweeted.
I've made countless mistakes live on air. The replies to this are horrible. You man are so pressed by women in football that you take pure pleasure in this. Grow up. https://t.co/QEwMl4ek9Q
— Ian Wright (@IanWright0) December 6, 2022
Aluko also took to Twitter to respond to the criticism:
"Got myself a First class law degree, 102 caps and a Doctorate but Maths wasn’t always my fort. Nearly 1 in 2 games is the math on Richarlison. But some of you weirdo twitterati knew that already. Might also learn from the rest of the analysis conveniently ignored."
Presenters defend Eni Aluko
Other voices also defended Aluko.
"Aluko is an absolute joy to work with, knowledgeable, professional and makes my job so much easier," ITV presenter Seema Jaswal tweeted.
"We all know what she meant and if either of the blokes alongside her had said it…it would have been ignored. The bile beneath this says a lot more about the authors than Eni Aluko. P.S. I once called the Pentagon an 'octagonal shaped building in Washington'', former Football Focus presenter Dan Walker added.
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