Dominik Szoboszlai captained Hungary to a last-gasp win over Scotland on Sunday night which keeps their Euro 2024 hopes alive for at least a few more days, but the result was overshadowed by a worrying incident involving one of his teammates.
Midway through the second half, a collision between Barnabas Varga and Angus Gunn left the former with a serious head injury which necessitated a lengthy stoppage and had players frantically beckoning for medical attention, which was inexplicably slow in arriving.
The Reds player was so frustrated by the slowness with which a stretcher was summoned that he attempted to pull it towards his stricken teammate in order to speed up what should’ve been an urgent process.
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Speaking to Magenta TV after the match, Szoboszlai said (via Daily Mail): “I tried to put him on his side, which is actually the best thing you can do in situations like this. He couldn’t get enough air. I have no idea what the protocol is, whether people are not allowed to run onto the pitch if we need help, but…
“You could see that it’s a huge problem. Everyone was running, I was running – these things add up to seconds. It’s not my decision, but we have to change something about it. We have to do it faster, much faster. Everyone knows that seconds add up.”
The 23-year-old said of Varga’s condition (via GIVEMESPORT): “He is okay. He’s in the hospital. He needs some surgery on his face and his nose. I think he’s going to have surgery tomorrow. It looked bad, it was bad. It felt bad.
“I don’t really know what the protocol or how it works but if our doctors say we need someone immediately to help, then I don’t think they should walk.”
It’s not our place to tell qualified medical practitioners how to do their job, but it was clear from the distress on the faces of players and supporters that the injury to Varga was a serious one which required urgent attention.
It’s therefore very difficult to fathom why the medics were so slow to rush to the Hungarian’s aid, and it shouldn’t have needed Szoboszlai and his teammates to plead with them to hurry up and attend to the 29-year-old.
Thankfully the player is now stable in hospital, and having broken several bones in his face (Daily Mail), we pray that he’ll make as speedy a recovery as possible. His welfare is the single most important thing.
Nonetheless, it was still a very worrying situation – particularly after Christian Eriksen’s collapse at the previous European Championship – and we can fully understand why Szoboszlai was so angry about the slow response from the medical team.
We can only hope that such scenes are never repeated on a football pitch. As much as we love the sport, results on the pitch are trivial compared to the health and wellbeing of those involved.
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The post ‘It was bad’ – Dominik Szoboszlai was rightfully fuming at one thing despite last-gasp Hungary win appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.
