Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos has reached out to Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah after the Spanish international injured the Egyptian in Saturday night’s Champions League final in Kiev.
Ramos locked arms with Salah in the first-half and flung Liverpool’s leading goalscorer to the ground in an attempted tackle that saw the Reds attacker leave the match with a shoulder injury.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said after the game that Salah’s injury did not look good, however, the Egyptian national team stated they were “optimistic” that their talisman would be available for next month’s FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Ramos reached out to Salah on Twitter to offer his condolences and insisted that above all else both players are fellow professionals.
El fútbol te enseña la cara más dulce a veces y la más amarga otras. Ante todo somos compañeros. Pronta recuperación, Salah. El futuro te espera.||Sometimes football shows you it's good side and other times the bad. Above all, we are fellow pros. #GetWellSoon @MoSalah
— Sergio Ramos (@SergioRamos) May 27, 2018
“Sometimes football shows you it’s good side and other times the bad. Above all, we are fellow pros.”
Although clear-cut chances had been limited, Liverpool had been the better side prior to Salah’s departure and this started to change almost as soon as he left the field.
Marcelo was suddenly free to bomb forward without worrying as much about tracking back and the midfield pairing of Toni Kroos and Luka Modric dictated the tempo of the game from then on. Real had the upper hand.
Liverpool fans are therefore left to wonder what might have been had their 44-goal star stayed on the field. As has been clear from some of the tweets posted to Twitter in the time since, many of them – as well as some journalists – also appear to be wondering if Ramos set out to deliberately inflict the injury.
https://twitter.com/drshahidalam/status/1000534510881181698
It was a deliberate attempt to cause injury to Salah, Sergio Ramos should have been sent off.
— Alan Hudson (@redtrianglesUK) May 26, 2018
https://twitter.com/RKitunga/status/1000629918718484480
Analysis will be all about Karius now, which is a tragedy for the kid. But something truly disturbing watching Ramos lift the UCL trophy, when it was his cynical, pre-meditated, horrible, horrible assault on Mo Salah that changed the course of this game. Tainted victory #UCLfinal
— David Maddock (@MaddockMirror) May 26, 2018
How can anyone like Sergio Ramos? Completely deliberate attempt to injure Salah
— Kousha (@KAminian11) May 26, 2018
https://twitter.com/TomJohnson05/status/1000489748883038209
https://twitter.com/Liam_O_Hare/status/1000495553241808896
Ramos clutched Mo Salah's arm as he was going down, and then put his entire weight on it. THAT SHIT WAS INTENTIONAL.
— The Philosopher (@NDIMZIN) May 26, 2018
Anyone who doesn't think Ramos tackle on Salah wasn't intentional doesn't know the game. #simple
— Neil Hart (@nidger) May 26, 2018
https://twitter.com/LagosUberRide/status/1000592772095795205
Anybody who says Ramos didn't purposely bring Salah down with the intent to injure him, is an idiot.
See the way his head moves on the way down and the slight tightening of his grip on Salah.
He meant it.— Darrone (@IamVaughany) May 26, 2018