Fortunately, the word from Neil Lennon last night was that there was no fracture, just severe bruising for Jeremie Frimpong.
Late on in Celtic’s 3-1 win over Kilmarnock the teenager was on the receiving end of real brutality, not the sort that the SFA found Ryan Christie guilty of. It’s the sort of challenge that was regularly inflicted on Kieran Tierney forcing him to miss chunks of every season through injury.
Red Card. No debate. pic.twitter.com/zXP382mhLm
— kerryjim (@bnyf) January 22, 2020
The clip above shows the cynical nature of Alan Power’s ‘challenge’. Professionals know it, they know the signs that referees overlook or ignore.
With Frimpong breaking forward the Kilmarnock midfielder arrives late on the scene, leading his challenge with his left foot. That catches the eye but the damage is done with his trailing right knee.
Coming in a split second later his right leg follows through, snapping into Frimpong’s exposed right knee sending the Celtic defender crashing to the deck.
Not a word from Don Robertson, certainly not a card. Rather than spend time at referee training classes ensuring that refs pace out 10 yards correctly or ensure the ball is placed correctly for a corner a re-run of the clip above followed by a red card would be far more beneficial for Scottish football.
