Tottenham’s Luca Modric criticises Sunderland’s tough tackling of Lee Cattermole
Tottenham Hotspurs’ Luca Modric has criticised Sunderland defensive midfielder Lee Cattermole for his challenge during the two teams' 1-1 draw in the Premier League on Tuesday 9 November.
Cattermole was given a yellow card for the challenge, but Modric believes that the player should have received a straight red card in the incident.
Speaking to the press after the match, Modric stated that the challenge could have broken his leg and badly injured him.
"I jumped and got out of the way at the last second. Maybe if I stayed on the floor I would have broken my leg—jumping has probably saved me. He should have got a red card but the referee decided differently," said Modric.
The Tottenham midfielder warned Cattermole about his challenges and said, "Players who tackle like that need to think before making a tackle because they can ruin careers of friends and professionals. They just need to think about it."
Modric also mentioned his disappointment in referee Howard Webb who failed to protect the creative midfielder throughout the game.
“I can't show you now, but there is a big swelling on my knee. When you see tackles like that, it is a little upsetting, and if they are not punished properly then even more so."
Webb failed to send off Cattermole in the tough physical encounter. Sunderland earned their draw, but Spurs' manager Harry Redknapp felt that Webb had a poor game and got too many big decisions wrong.
"It was a bad tackle in my opinion and could have broken [Modric's] leg easily,” said Rednapp.
The manager also felt that Spurs should have been awarded a penalty after Boudewijn Zenden brought down David Bentley. However, Webb booked the midfielder for diving, to the disbelief of Redknapp.
As a result of the draw, Tottenham were booed by a section of their home supporters. More worrying for Redknapp is that his side have lost ground on their Premier League rivals and remain in sixth position.
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