Monday, February 6th, 2012
Stoke City’s Ryan Shawcross revealed on Friday that he had forgotten all about his nightmare tackle on Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey that ended the latter’s English Premier League season and that it was entirely up to the Gunners’ midfielder to do the same and get over it. Shawcross claimed to have called Ramsey on numerous occasions and left messages but have yet to receive any response from the Welsh winger. Ironically, the Stoke player got his first taste of England duty when he was promptly elevated to the senior squad after committing the horrible tackle, although he was quick to apologise and hold up his hand for his part.
Despite all this, Shawcross has maintained that he will not change his tough tackling ways and always gives his best on the field. He also handed the initiative back to Ramsey by maintaining that he has done his part in holding out the olive branch and it is there for acceptance.
“I have made efforts, I’ve left him messages and a text, and nothing has been returned, but that’s up to Aaron,” Shawcross said in the Times. “Will I see him? I might do in the future but it’s totally up to Aaron.
“I haven’t spoken to him. It’s up to him whether he gets back to me. There is a lot of emotion going on and he’s probably trying to concentrate on having his rehab done and that’s fair enough.”
Shawcross has ultimately swept the incident aside as an accident and that it should not happen again with all things kept equal. It might appear that he no longer feels sorry about the whole situation with his latest remarks but with Stoke manager Tony Pulis vouching for his character, one would definitely believe that his tears upon the red card was for feeling sorry about the injury.
“I was quite surprised how quickly I was back to normal,” he added. “I knew straight after I was going to be the same player and make tackles. It was an accident and these things happen in football – I’m not going to change the way I play.”
It is good to see both players getting on with life, one more so than the other.
Tags: Aaron Ramsey, Arsenal, English Premier League, Ryan Shawcross, Ryan Shawcross tackle, Stoke City