June 6 – Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos, whose arm wrestle on Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah put the Egyptian striker out of the Champions League final, has hit back at widespread criticism of his action and says Salah could have played on instead of leaving the field in tears.
An Egyptian lawyer has launched a €1 billion lawsuit against Ramos for the “physical and psychological harm” caused to Egypt in case Salah misses the World Cup while Liverpool supporters blamed Ramos for the clash, which went unpunished, and a petition is doing the rounds calling for FIFA and UEFA to sanction the Spain international retrospectively.
But Ramos insists it was Salah who instigated the tussle.
“Bloody hell, they have given this Salah thing a lot of attention. I didn’t want to speak because everything is magnified,” Ramos told AS.
“I remember the play well: he grabs my arm first and I fell to the other side, the injury happened to the other arm and they said that I gave him a judo hold. I spoke with Salah through messages, he was quite good. He could have played on if he got an injection for the second-half, I have done it sometimes but when Ramos does something like this, it sticks a little bit more.”
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