Virgil van Dijk has said everyone at Liverpool is fully behind Conor Bradley and criticised Arsenal winger Gabriel Martinelli for his reaction to the defender’s injury.
Bradley pulled up with what is feared to be a serious issue in stoppage time of the 0-0 draw at the Emirates while attempting to clear the ball.
Martinelli was widely criticised after throwing the ball at the Northern Ireland international and trying to push him off the pitch.
The Liverpool defender left London on crutches, with the club fearing the worst. Martinelli later issued an apology on social media, confirming he had contacted Conor Bradley.
The incident sparked anger among Liverpool players and drew criticism from Sky Sports pundits Roy Keane, Daniel Sturridge and Gary Neville, with Van Dijk insisting Martinelli’s actions were poor.
“It is pretty obvious for you guys to analyse it from clips,” said the Liverpool skipper. “For us, it goes pretty quickly.
“The long ball came, Conor is challenging for it, he falls down on the pitch and obviously Martinelli pushes him off the pitch and our players reacted.
“We all came together. And we had no clue what really happened, but it doesn’t look great and it doesn’t look great on Martinelli either. We are focusing on Conor now. He will have medical tests coming up in the next 24 hours and we will have to adapt.
“Everyone was unhappy at that moment. It wasn’t [just] a couple of players, but everyone, and rightly so because Conor was on the pitch and to be pushing him off the pitch is not really a good sight.
“Our thoughts are with Conor, first and foremost. Hopefully it is not the worst, but it doesn’t look great. Other than that, our gameplan was outstanding in my opinion.
“We let their centre-backs have the ball because we felt like they wouldn’t be able to come up with an ID and that is why they didn’t create many chances against us.
“It doesn’t look great, but you can come out and try to go one-v-one and take the risk, but we all know a game is 90 minutes and at a certain point we would have the space to play and that is what happened in the second half.
“We were outstanding with the ball. It felt like it could have been more than a point, but I am very proud of the guys against a team that is very much in form.”
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