Stuart Kettlewell has called again for referees to take action on ‘tip tackles’ after Stephen O’Donnell suffered an injury the Motherwell boss feared could have been far worse.
O’Donnell injured his shoulder after landing heavily from an aerial challenge during Motherwell’s Premier Sports Cup win over Dundee United last week.
The defender has avoided serious injury but Kettlewell has concerns about players not challenging properly for headers and leaving their opponents in danger.
“Stephen’s not trained this week,” the manager said. “It’s one that will have to be assessed over the next few days.
“We’re hopeful that it’s not too bad.
“It’s definitely not as bad as we first feared. You’re thinking about dislocations and all that sort of thing but that’s been cleared.
“He took a pretty significant blow from a height.”
Kettlewell revealed that he had spoken with Scottish FA head of referees Willie Collum about his concerns, having raised a similar issue with Collum’s predecessor Crawford Allan last year.
“It’s not a moan, and if you look at the challenge there’s no intention whatsoever to hurt the player,” he said. “But I’ve been big on this over the last 18 months.
“In rugby they call it the ‘tip tackle’, where you’re fully up there and contesting a ball, you can’t ‘make a back’ for the opponent.
“It’s something I personally think has to be outlawed from the game here.
“We have had a wee bit of a dialogue with Willie and it’s not a rant but something I feel we’re missing at this moment in time.
“Without being too dramatic, if Stephen falls another couple of inches in the way and lands on his head, what’s his neck supported by with his full body weight coming down on top of him?
“I don’t want to dampen the mood around the game, and I thought it was really well officiated last Friday. I just thought that it’s something our eye isn’t particularly well trained for.
“It was his shoulder, fortunately, but I’m in a position where I feel it could have been worse if we don’t get a grip of it.”
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
