Sydney FC coach Ufuk Talay has lashed out at social media customers who flooded Patrick Wooden’s inbox with abusive messages after his ‘miss of the century’ on the weekend, revealing the younger striker had a damaged foot which contributed to the botched strike.
Wooden is ready to overlook as much as 12 weeks of soccer attributable to a stress fracture in his left ankle – the identical foot he selected to not shoot with when he discovered himself simply metres out with an empty web deep in first-half stoppage time in Saturday night time’s 3-1 win over the Central Coast Mariners.
The 21-year-old generated the possibility by urgent Mariners goalkeeper Danny Vukovic as he obtained a dodgy backpass and profitable the ball on the sting of the six-yard field. However as an alternative of utilizing his left foot, Wooden shot along with his proper and swept the ball large of the left submit – a lot to the disbelief of himself, Vukovic, the commentators, and everybody watching.
The harm he has been carrying could clarify why he selected to not use his different foot.
Wooden’s “spotlight” shortly went viral, reaching tens of millions of customers, and inevitably resulting in what Talay described as some “fairly disgraceful” messages touchdown in his inbox.
“I perceive that we stay within the public eye,” Talay stated. “But additionally what they don’t see is the facet of the place he’s had a stress fracture in his ankle for fairly a number of weeks, and he’s been taking part in by way of it with the ache, however sadly, he’s made it worse on this recreation, and now we’ll lose Patty for probably 12 weeks.”
Patrick Wooden had a Saturday night time to overlook – and now he might miss the subsequent three months of soccer.Credit score: Getty
Wooden was on crutches at Sydney FC’s coaching floor on Thursday, along with his left foot in a moon boot. Teammates have rallied round him since Saturday’s match and Talay has pulled him apart for a one-on-one chat to reassure him that such moments are a part of soccer. However what he copped from web trolls, Talay stated, is unacceptable.
“It’s onerous, particularly for a younger man who’s solely 21, particularly in the event that they’re direct messages straight into your inbox, to not learn them,” Talay stated.