Idrissa Gueye was sent off for slapping his Everton team-mate Michael Keane just 13 minutes into the Premier League clash against Manchester United at Old Trafford
Everton’s Idrissa Gana Gueye has taken to Instagram to apologise after being shown a red card for slapping his own team-mate during Monday’s win at Manchester United.
The incident occurred in the 13th minute when Gueye and Michael Keane had a heated exchange following a shot at goal by Bruno Fernandes. However, replays of the incident showed Gueye raising his hand and striking Keane in the face. Referee Tony Harrington had no hesitation but to hand Gueye a straight red card.
Despite being down to 10 men, Everton managed to secure an important win with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall scoring the winner in the first half.
After the game, Gueye issued an apology and took responsibility for his actions. “I want to apologise first to my team-mate Michael Keane. I take full responsibility for my reaction. I also apologise to my team-mates, the staff, the fans and the club,” he said on his Instagram story.
READ MORE: Idrissa Gueye punishment clear after Michael Keane ‘slap’ in bizarre Everton red card vs Man UtdREAD MORE: Everton star sent off for STRIKING own team-mate in angry clash during Man Utd game
“What happened does not reflect who I am or the values I stand for. Emotions run high but nothing justifies such behaviour. I’ll make sure it never happens again.”
Gueye’s manager, David Moyes, spoke about the incident after the match, admitting he likes to see passion from his players. “If nothing happened, I don’t think anyone in the stadium would have been surprised,” he told Sky Sports post-match.
“I thought the referee could have taken a bit longer to think about it. I got told that the rules of the game that if you slap your own player, you could be in trouble.
“But there’s another side to it: I like my players fighting each other, if someone didn’t do the right action. If you want that toughness and resilience to get a result, you want someone to act on it.
“I’m disappointed we get the sending off. But we’ve all been footballers, we get angry with our teammates. He’s apologised for the sending off, he’s praised the players and thanked them for it and apologised for what happened.”
Delivering his assessment on Gueye’s red card, match-winner Dewsbury-Hall said: “It was just a moment of madness. It was obviously avoidable. All I can say is Idrissa apologised to us all at half-time and said his piece. That’s all he can do and we move on from it.
“The reaction from the lads after it was unbelievable, top tier. We could’ve easily crumbled, gone in on ourselves and lost the game comfortably, but it probably made us grow even more as a team.
“The manager just said he would deal with the situation another time and it was just about keeping to the plan that we had. He just wanted us to continue what we were doing and focus on the things we can change.”
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