Kris Boyd has been covering Newcastle vs Aston Villa on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday, where he was left enraged by the incident involving Emiliano Martinez.
“Absolute disgrace” in Newcastle vs Aston Villa
Well, the 39-year-old was not happy with the late decision to finally withdraw the Argentina international in the 38th minute, as he feels the concussed South American should have been substituted earlier.
Speaking to Jeff Stelling, Boyd said: “I’m no medical expert, but I can see from here that he took a knee full force in the head, you could tell that Martinez was struggling. Why the medical staff didn’t put their foot down and take him off this field is an absolute disgrace.”
Martinez clearly looked groggy after being accidentally clattered by the knee of Tyrone Mings, and despite several minutes of treatment, the Aston Villa No.1 was deemed well enough to continue.
However, the Argentine was clearly feeling the impact of the knock even after that decision was taken by the medical staff, and he was eventually taken off with Robin Olsen replacing him.
There has been an ongoing debate about how head injuries are not taken seriously enough in football, and today throws up yet another example of how the issue still requires some attention.
Newcastle ran riot against Aston Villa
The Villans ideally would’ve liked to have Martinez available for the entire 90 minutes, as things seemed to fall apart once he left the pitch at St James’ Park.
Newcastle scored three goals before the 60th minute mark, which is remarkably when you consider that Martinez wasn’t even substituted until the 38th minute, before netting another in the 67th minute to make it 4-0.
In fairness to Olsen, it was hardly his fault.
The Magpies are in phenomenal form under Eddie Howe, and came into this match sitting fourth having won four of their last five Premier League games.
Hopefully, Martinez carries no lasting damage from today’s incident with Mings, and he can help Aston Villa record a better result against Manchester United next week.
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