Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler admitted the injury to new signing Matt O’Riley ‘doesn’t look good’ in a worrying update.
O’Riley completed his move to the Seagulls from Celtic on Monday in a deal worth £25million plus add-ons, and was handed his debut for his new club just 24 hours later in their Carabao Cup tie with Crawley Town.
However, O’Riley’s debut came to an end after just nine minutes with the Denmark international being clattered into by Crawley captain Jay Williams.
The 23-year-old was in immediate discomfort and was subsequently taken off with Hurzeler claiming the player couldn’t put any weight on his ankle.
“It doesn’t look good, to be honest,” Hurzeler told journalists when asked about O’Riley’s injury.
“I just talked to him when he went off the pitch and he couldn’t put any weight on his ankle, so let’s see.
“We have to scan it, we have to control it and then we’ll see what it is. I think we’ll have an answer tomorrow.”
Asked about how distraught he looked going off, Hurzeler said: “The players know it probably the best so his reaction was not really good.
“I think he felt it immediately after the foul and he tried to stand up and couldn’t continue the game so it was a tough situation for us.
“It was a great signing but let’s see what the scan tells us about the injury so we can go on.”
Hurzeler also raged at the ferocity of the challenge on O’Riley, suggesting it had no place in the game.
“It’s not part of football, to be honest. You can’t tackle like this,” Hurzeler added.
“It’s a tackle where you take a risk of injuring another player and I think because a red card was not given the emotions get higher and higher and it’s gets very tough, very tense because the ref didn’t stop it in the first second.
“But it was his decision and we have to accept it.
Brighton secured their place in the third round of the Carabao Cup with a 4-0 triumph over their League One opponents.
Goals from Simon Adingra, Jeremy Sarmiento, Adam Webster and Mark O’Mahony sealed the comfortable win for them.
The other Premier League teams managed to get through their ties with Everton beating Doncaster, Leicester easing past Tranmere, Fulham getting the better of Birmingham and Crystal Palace thrashing Norwich 4-0.
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News Summary:
- Fabian Hurzeler gives worrying update on Matt O’Riley as Brighton boss rages at tackle on new signing
- Check all news and articles from the latest Football updates.