O’SHEA: I’m lucky I was able to walk away from ANOTHER horror challenge
O’SHEA FURY AT BALE’S LUNGE BEFORE COLEMAN HORROR
JOHN O’SHEA says he was lucky not to end up in hospital alongside Seamus Coleman, after narrowly avoiding serious injury from Gareth Bale’s dangerous tackle.
The Real Madrid attacker caught O’shea with a high tackle, just minutes before Coleman’s leg was broken by Neil Taylor, but the Sunderland defender was left with stitches in his shin rather than undergoing surgery like his team-mate.
Wales boss Chris Coleman said his view suggested Bale had a right to challenge for the ball, but O’shea was not in the mood to agree after the game.
“When I see it back, I was a little bit annoyed,” said O’shea. “Thankfully I am walking away from it.
“There were plenty of stitches put in there. I am very lucky – when you consider what has happened to Seamus. On another night, they could have had two red cards. I can’t remember how many red cards.”
Stung by criticism of his players, Chris Coleman said Ireland players didn’t have halos over their heads after the game, but O’shea dismissed the Wales’ manager’s argument that both sides were are as reckless as one another.
“It did not feel that way, particularly,” he said. “It is a derby situation – and you do expect tackles but as I said, within reason. There is no problem getting a hard tackle but when people are very late, and stuff like that, it is a different story.”
O’shea said he and his team-mates would visit Coleman in a Dublin hospital, hopeful their skipper would make a full recovery from the shocking break.
“It is not looking too good for Seamus from what we have heard, a few of us might pop out to see him,” he said, “hopefully everything goes to plan. Hopefully he comes back as strong as ever. The type of fella he is he will recover quickly.” Coleman’s injury overshadowed the one point picked up by Ireland from the game, a result that left O’shea with bittersweet emotions.
“We’re a little disappointed,” he said. “When they go down to 10 men, you want to win it. Even when it was 11 versus 11, there was very little between the teams.
“But obviously the advantage goes to us when they get the red card. A few of the boys were shocked when they see Seamus’ leg but when we get a couple of chances – Aiden [Mcgeady] did so well when he came on, James Mcclean had a couple of shots, one of them got deflected narrowly wide, and you are just hoping they will go in.
“But if you had given us this position at the start of the group a lot of people would have taken it. You want to win your home games and that is what we have to do now to make sure we qualify for Russia.”
Ireland are level with Serbia on top of Group D, with Wales still five points behind. Having started the game without Robbie Brady, Wes Hoolahan and seen James Mccarthy pull out at the last minute, O’shea says Ireland must take heart from the point.
“The type of injuries and suspensions we have had to deal with for this Welsh game, even in the warm up, we lost James, but despite all those issues, we have still managed to get good results in this campaign,” he said.
“If we get a win against Austria in June – and we will be going all out for that – then that puts us into a great position coming into the final laps of the race.”
No with problema hard tackle but when people are very late and stuff, it is a very different story