‘Disgraceful’ Gabriel Martinelli shoves injured Conor Bradley before Liverpool man stretchered off | OneFootball

Gabriel Martinelli nearly caused a mass brawl when he shoved a visibly distressed Conor Bradley off the pitch, moments after the Liverpool defender suffered an injury that required him to be stretchered off against Arsenal.

The Northern Irishman landed awkwardly when contesting for the ball with Martinelli during the closing stages of the Premier League clash and was visibly in serious discomfort.

However, Martinelli responded by throwing the ball at the downed defender before trying to push him over the sideline to get play restarted.

Gary Neville branded him an “idiot” and his actions “disgraceful” and was surprised that Liverpool players didn’t retaliate in stronger fashion.

"You can't push him off the pitch,”” Neville said on Sky Sports’ broadcast, who said he was lucky to escape a red card. “You cannot do that. That is so poor. I think an apology is needed.

"Bradley is being stretchered off. I'm fuming with Martinelli to be honest. I don't know how the Liverpool players didn't go over there and whack him, to be honest with you and take a red card. Absolutely disgraceful, that.”

Martinelli was not booked for his actions though Reds defender Ibrahima Konate was shown a yellow card for getting involved in the aftermath.

Dominik Szoboszlai highlighted that Bradley was in no way trying to time waste and emphasised the importance of player welfare over anything.

"I see that Conor twisted his knee. I don't know what is going on with him. He didn't want to come on to the pitch, time wasting. He couldn't think where he was,” Szoboszlai told Sky Sports.

"Then he comes to push him on the pitch. I understand they want to win, we want to win. But the health of the player comes ahead of everything else."

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Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli (right) avoided a booking for moving injured Liverpool full-back Conor Bradley (not pictured) off the pitch (PA) (PA Wire)

However, Liverpool manager Arne Slot somewhat came to the defence of Martinelli as he sought to not escalate the situation.

“I don’t know Gabriel Martinelli but he comes across as a nice guy,” Slot said in his press conference.

“I think the problem for him is, and it’s a problem in general in football, that there is so much time-wasting and players pretending they are injured in the final parts of the game, that you can then sometimes be annoyed if you want to score a goal that you think the player is time-wasting.

“I cannot ask of Gabriel Martinelli in the 94th minute when it’s so emotional for him to understand he is playing Liverpool – a team when we played Leeds and a player was held but didn’t go to the floor, or played West Ham United and my players try to drag (Lucas) Paqueta out of a situation where he was getting a second yellow card.

“I’m 100 percent sure that if he knew what the injury might be that he would never do (what he did). But it doesn’t look great if he has the injury which we fear he might have.

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Arne Slot used the problem of time-wasting to come to Martinelli's defence (REUTERS)

“But time-wasting and diving in football has come to the situation where players think in the 94th minute that it’s happening again, because I’ve seen it happen against us so many times this season.

“I can understand Martinelli might have thought this was time-wasting and didn’t think this was Liverpool.”

Speaking on the extent of Bradley’s injury, Slot added: “I don’t know the injury yet but it didn’t look great if you have to come off on a stretcher. When we see the video we think the same, we have to wait on the scans if it’s that bad. Or maybe he can play on Monday, let’s hope so.”

Others were far less understanding and the criticism nevertheless continued after full-time, with Roy Keane echoing the sentiment of his former Manchester United teammate Neville.

"I didn't like it at all,” Keane said. “It happened to me once. I was badly injured and a player stood over me. It's not good. We know football, the player is a good lad.

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Martinelli was lucky not to receive red and spark a mass brawl after shoving the injured Bradley (Action Images via Reuters)

"Throwing the ball at him, standing over him and getting a little knee on him. He tries to force him off.

"That behaviour is an absolute disgrace. He's a good boy to roll over himself. Hopefully, Martinelli will have a look at it and hopefully, he'll apologise for it. Not good stuff that."

Former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge then added: "It's disappointing to see. There's passion and there's being a winner, there's wanting to help your team-mates, but you've got to be respectful as a footballer.

"Injuries are never a nice feeling. Martinelli is thinking time wasting but you've got to be self aware enough to see the guy is down. You've been there before.

"It's disrespectful. It's probably worse than disrespectful."

Mikel Arteta, meanwhile, stuck up for his player and defended his character before wishing Bradley well.

“Knowing Gabi he is an incredible lovely guy and I hope Conor is well, I will have a word with him to understand that,” Arteta said.