Keep your emotions in check, Son

THE injury Everton midfielder Andre Gomes suffered against Tottenham on Sunday was not a nice one.

I know because I suffered the same fracture dislocation playing for Leicester City against Derby County in 2000.

His fracture will likely be an inch or two long, not too bad.

The bad part of the injury will be the fact the ankle ligaments have been strained and torn — they will need a lot of massaging to stop them going gluey and to ensure they grow back, which they will.

I had a titanium plate fitted to get me back playing again and I did it in six weeks and two days, which I was very proud of.

As footballers, and particularly those of us who have suffered bad injuries, you are perhaps a little more conditioned to dealing with these incidents than most.

And perhaps that’s why the reaction of Heung-min Son and his Tottenham team-mate Serge Aurier was the aspect that I found most uncomfortable about the whole situation.

I am not saying they shouldn’t have been upset or shown distress, because these are normal human emotions.

But, for a while now, I have been bothered that players and managers seem to think they must show an extreme version of their emotions because of the comeback they will get if they do not.

They way Son (above) reacted made it look like he thought football — the referee, the authorities, fans at home and in the crowd, opponents – was going to come down on him like a ton of bricks, even though we could all see he didn’t deliberately go out to cause Gomes’ injury.

Nowadays, footballers seemingly have to go over the top to present themselves before the court of public opinion and that needs to stop.