Stan Collymore reveals Spurs pair made him feel uncomfortable following Everton incident

Former Liverpool and England striker Stan Collymore has claimed that Heung-min Son overreacted at Goodison Park on Sunday.

The South Korean was initially booked for a trip on Everton’s Andre Gomes and became visibly distressed by the extent of the midfielder’s ankle injury after he appeared to fall awkwardly prior to a second challenge from Serge Aurier.

Son’s caution was amended by referee Martin Atkinson to a straight red card and had to be comforted by members of the Tottenham backroom staff after witnessing the injury.

While Gomes received on-field treatment from the Toffees medical team, Son left the pitch in tears with team-mate Dele Alli confirming that the 27-year-old was not in a good place in the dressing room after the match had ended (BBC).

Collymore claimed that he found Son’s reaction to the incident uncomfortable and suggested that he had done so to show himself in a good light in fear of any criticism from the public.

‘As footballers, and particularly those of us who have suffered bad injuries, you are perhaps a little more conditioned to dealing with these incidents than most,’ Collymore wrote for the Mirror.

‘And perhaps that’s why the reaction of Heung-min Son and his Tottenham team-mate Serge Aurier was the aspect that I found most uncomfortable about the whole situation.

‘I am not saying they shouldn’t have been upset or shown distress, because these are normal human emotions.

‘But, for a while now, I have been bothered that players and managers seem to think they must show an extreme version of their emotions because of the comeback they will get if they do not.

‘The way Son reacted made it look like he thought football — the referee, the authorities, fans at home and in the crowd, opponents – was going to come down on him like a ton of bricks, even though we could all see he didn’t deliberately go out to cause Gomes’ injury.

‘Nowadays, footballers seemingly have to go over the top to present themselves before the court of public opinion and that needs to stop.’

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