Medical insider issues Marc Cucurella injury verdict amid ‘violent’ Chelsea claim
The fact that Chelsea star Marc Cucurella was not at risk of serious injury when Tottenham’s Cristian Romero yanked his hair earlier this month (14 August) should have no bearing on whether the incident merited a red card.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in injury and data analysis.
Harry Kane made it 2-2 in the dying minutes of the clash at Stamford Bridge despite Romero having pulled Cucurella’s hair inside the box just moments earlier.
VAR official Mike Dean reviewed the incident but elected not to send referee Anthony Taylor to the pitchside monitor to take another look.
In his column for the Daily Mail last Thursday (18 August), Dean admitted that he should have allowed Taylor to assess the flashpoint himself.
Dinnery assessed whether violent conduct, which necessitates a red card under the Laws of the Game, should be determined in relation to the outcome of a particular challenge or confrontation.
“It’s a difficult one,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“Can we define violent conduct in terms of the outcome of an injury? The first thing that came to mind was Son Heung-min’s tackle on Andre Gomes, which was fairly innocuous but resulted in a significant fracture-dislocation.
“But the tackle itself wasn’t that bad and I didn’t think merited a red card. However, the argument was that he spent four or five months on the sidelines because of it. But that’s just how football is sometimes.
“It’s very unfortunate but does that mean it deserves a red card? The reality is that people have different pain thresholds and it varies from incident to incident.
“I think intent is key, but that in itself is a very grey area. If the intention is there to hurt or endanger an opponent, then regardless of whether it results in an injury, it needs to be a red card. Players still need to be punished.
“There are nuances around intent and it’s never going to be perfect, but if you want to eradicate that side of the game then this is necessary. There was definitely intent with this one.”
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