Ryan Bowman was a lucky boy.
But the Motherwell forward was not quite as fortunate as Celtic’s Kieran Tierney, who somehow avoided serious injury following a horror challenge at the weekend.
In the 65th minute of Celtic’s 2-0 victory over Motherwell on Saturday, which puts the Hoops 24 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership, Tierney was left in a heap by Bowman on the touchline.
As the left back looked to control a ball that had skimmed up off his instep, Bowman came hurtling into a tackle and slammed his studs into Tierney’s left knee in a challenge that was not unlike Roy Keane’s infamous hit on Alf-Inge Haaland in 2001.
Shockingly, Bowman only saw yellow for the tackle which you can see below.
https://twitter.com/AntiCelticRefs/status/833054037943734272
And two days removed from the game, Tierney has opened up on what he felt upon impact, admitting he’d feared the worst.
“Straight away I thought something bad had happened. He caught me on the kneecap. It was a horrible challenge,” Tierney said, with quotes appearing in the Scottish Daily Record.
“It was sore. You kinda know sometimes when you have done something and I thought it was bad.
“He caught me high and my knee is all cut. I feared the worst, but thankfully it was okay. I got lucky.
“Having just come back from injury, the last thing I wanted was another one. The pitch has a bobble on it but there are no excuses. It was a bad tackle.”
Tierney saw out the game, although his knee was left bloodied from the tackle, and he’s admitted that he felt Bowman was fortunate to escape a red card.
“He just said sorry to me after it. I didn’t say much back,” Tierney continued.
“I thought straight away it was a red card. If you look at my knee just now, and the fact he caught me with his studs that high, then you’d think it would be.
“But that’s not my decision. The knee should be fine hopefully. It is sore but other than that, it’s fine.”
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