Mark Robins admits Coventry City stars ‘unlucky’ as they face another ‘really bad’ injury ahead of their games
Coventry City news from Coventry Live as both Mark Robins and his opposite number at Millwall react to FA disciplinary charge
Mark Robins says Coventry City winger Tatsuhiro Sakamoto was “lucky” not to have suffered a “really bad” injury when the victim of an elbow to the face against Millwall.
The Sky Blues manager admits he didn’t see the incident at the time, when his Japanese player was floored by Lions’ defender Joe Bryan, who later admitted an FA charge of violent conduct, for which he was punished with an immediate three match ban. The 30-year-old left-back has apologised for the incident which was only picked up after the 2-1 CBS Arena victory, and then dealt with retrospectively by the FA as footage circulated on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
City fans were rightly fuming when they saw the shocking footage, many of whom tagged The FA into their comments. Asked whether he feels fan power played a part in the footballing authority taking action, Robins explained: “I don’t think anyone saw it until the end of the game and we saw it and then it was well documented on social media.
“We put in a report, which we have to do after a game, and then the powers that be take over, and it was all there for everyone to see on social media, and that’s what happened I think.”
He added: “Losing Jamie Allen on the Tuesday evening beforehand to a fractured cheekbone wasn’t pleasant and that could have been very similar. Tatsu was very lucky. You certainly don’t want to see that and after what Jamie sustained, it could easily have been a really bad injury.”
Millwall boss Joe Edwards, meanwhile, admitted he also missed it during the game but concedes that it did “look bad,” albeit insisting there was no intent from his player to hurt Sakamoto.
“It’s a tough one,” he said, speaking to the Southwark News. “I didn’t see it in real time but when I was analysing the game back on the wide angle, you can see an incident has happened. And if I’m honest on the wide angle, I overlooked it.
“But when this incident was presented to us as a disciplinary matter, I can see when you look at it back it obviously doesn’t look good. So in terms of an appeal, we haven’t made one. It’s one we know we’re not going to win.”
He added: “Joe tells me he’s made no intention whatsoever to deliberately go out and hurt the guy. From Joe’s point of view, someone’s made an action to quickly make a run to lose Joe and he’s made, what feels to him, an instinctive blocking action to prevent the guy from gaining an advantage through a run.
“Obviously, the kind of reflex Joe has used he has ended up catching him in the face with his arm and it does look bad and I can understand why that gets deemed as violent conduct. But it’s kind of one where it’s frustrating as [the ban] has happened after the event and you think you’ve come through the game and we’re preparing for [Ipswich] with Joe as part of the squad. When it comes retrospective [decisions], it’s always frustrating but Joe’s not a player who’s going to do anything deliberately but we can see why it’s been decided.”
