Carl Starfelt has responded to claims that his challenge against Kevin Nisbet during Celtic’s clash earlier this year, was a nasty one.
Nisbet has been attempting to regain his form over his past few league outings after a 10-month-long knee injury due to the challenge put in by Starfelt. The Celtic defender undertook his role for the Celtic back-line by putting in challenges to regain possession. Football is a contact sport and accidents happen, after all, we’re only human. Putting in a heavy challenge is business as usual for any centre-half. So, to label Starfelt’s tackle as ‘nasty’, or as a ‘bad challenge’ (as former Hibernian manager Shaun Maloney said at the time) is entirely unfair.
Starfelt very much holds this view by declaring that he was unable to see how people were able to view his challenge as nasty, adding that it was completely unintentional and that he had sympathy for the striker.
As reported by the Scotsman, Starfelt gave his point of view…
“I haven’t heard anything about that. It was really sad to see that he got a bad injury. You don’t want to be involved in that kind of injury. I know how hard it is to be kept out of the game. I felt really sorry for him, but I cannot see how you can say that it was a nasty challenge. It was not intended at all.”
Starfelt, who has recently suffered a knee injury himself and is back playing for Celtic, will likely face Nisbet in today’s clash in Leith. It is unlikely that Nisbet harbours any ill will towards the Swede, as these things tend to happen in football.
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