Republic of Ireland and Everton footballer James McCarthy suffered a horrible double-leg break last weekend. The injury was suffered after a routine challenge that went wrong when Salomón Rondón's swinging boot caught McCarthy in the back of the calf.
There was an obvious outpouring of support for McCarthy, who faces a long road to recovery. Rondon was visibly upset at the challenge, with his manager Alan Pardew explaining not only was he involved in the incident but that he heard the snap too.
Objectively, Rondon was not to blame for McCarthy's injury. This is obvious. However, it is also understandable why he would be upset at the incident. Unless you're Stan Collymore.
Salomon Rondon’s tearful reaction to James McCarthy’s awful injury was interesting - and it reiterated what I said a couple of weeks ago about the lack of physicality in the game these days. Broken legs are part of football and always have been, and just as there was no blame on Rondon, so there was no need for any tears from him. It’s a tough game at times and I don’t want to see the West Brom no.9 now using what happened at the weekend to McCarthy as an excuse for any dip in form.
The reaction illustrates that an injury like this is not 'part of football.' There is nothing routine about this, they are highly unusual injuries that become extremely memorable because they are so rare.
The idea that you would link the lack of physicality the game with this incident is bizarre.
As For Rondon, he posted the following Instagram:
