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19th Mar 2016

Fellaini explains precisely why he uses his elbows so much during games

Conan Doherty

Fair play to him.

It would’ve been easy for Marouane Fellaini to ignore all the criticism and hide from his detractors. But he has come out, stood up tall and stared them down, one-by-one. With an…interesting explanation.

The Man United midfielder has been criticised on more than one occasion for the regularly with which his elbows make contact with opposition players. But according to the Belgian himself, it’s all down to self-defence.

 

“I don’t want to elbow someone. I just defend myself,” he said in an interview with Football Focus, with a straight face.

“Okay, I’m physical. I like to win my challenge – that’s English football as well. But I am not a dirty player.

“I just defend myself. I like to win my challenges when I play a game. In England, there are a lot of physical challenges so, if you want to win the game, you have to be aggressive.

“I never want to injure a player or to be bad. I’m not like that. I just defend myself.”

We’re saying nothing.