Premier League boss fumes as £25m signing limps out of debut after ‘ridiculous’ tackle

Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler was furious as a ‘ridiculous foul’ caused summer signing Matt O’Riley to limp out of his debut for the club after just nine minutes on Tuesday night.

O’Riley only arrived from Celtic in a £25m move on Monday and was swiftly handed his debut in the Carabao Cup clash with Crawley Town.

His first outing in a Seagulls shirt didn’t last long after Crawley captain Jay Williams put in a heavy challenge on the Denmark international and O’Riley could not continue.

Williams was not punished for the challenge, which Hurzeler felt was a red card offence and the lack of action from the referee caused chaos in the game.

‘I think after this foul it was like the players could tackle like they want because he didn’t get a yellow card,’ said the Seagulls boss in his post-match press conference.

‘For me it is a clear red card. You can’t tackle like this but you can play hard and you can be ruthless.

‘In the end I hope Matt is not so badly injured like it looks but we have to wait for a scan of his ankle. He said to me he could not put any weight on his ankle.

‘I think he is a player who will help us and that’s why we hope that he is not so badly injured. We will have a look how it goes on.’

Hurzeler had already hit out at Williams for his ‘ridiculous foul’ saying it was unacceptable behaviour from the League One player.

‘It doesn’t look good, to be honest. I think it was a really tough game. I was not happy with the performance. We can play better but you have to win tough, dirty games. It was a tough challenge,’ said the 31-year-old.

‘Ridiculous foul. It has nothing to do with football. This situation, it changed the game as afterwards it was emotional. I hope it is not so bad. I think it is easy to apologise, in the end we can’t fix the player.

‘It’s tough to deal with it but it’s part of football. It shouldn’t be, fouls like this. This is not the way we should behave on the pitch.’

Crawley manager Scott Lindsey did apologise after the match, saying: ‘Maybe we were a bit aggressive, maybe the referee missed it [the tackle on O’Riley] and I would like to apologise.

‘I wouldn’t want anyone to be hurt. We are both passionate about the game and we wish Brighton all the best in the next round.’

Brighton went on to win the game 4-0 with goals from Simon Adingra, Jeremy Sarmiento, Adam Webster and Mark O’Mahony.

23-year-old O’Riley will hope to return swiftly from the ankle injury and make a Premier League debut as soon as possible.

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