Robbie Neilson has backed “warrior” Craig Gordon to come back from the horror injury he suffered at Tannadice.
The Hearts captain had to be stretchered off whilst being given gas and air following a collision with Dundee United’s Steven Fletcher. The former Scotland teammates collided at pace after Gordon was first to a ball over the top of his defence, and Fletcher collided with the 39-year-old’s standing leg, which looked very much like it could be broken.
Inexplicably, referee Colin Stephen awarded a spot kick despite it being fairly clear Gordon won the race with Fletcher. He was then summoned over the VAR screen, and took his time deciding before eventually overturning his decision. As that was happening, Zander Clark was readying himself to come on, and was introduced for his Hearts debut as his teammate was taken to hospital, seemingly in a fair bit of distress as he went.
Neilson admitted the prognosis was unlikely to be a positive one. But he was adamant that his skipper would get through the upcoming difficult period with the help of the club.
“He’s gone to hospital and it’s not looking great,” Neilson told BBC Scotland. “I’m devastated for him. But he'll get through it. The big man’s a warrior.
“We’ll just help him through and see where we are in the next couple of days.”
Stephen had already overturned a first half penalty for hearts after Arnaud Djoum handled the ball on the deck with his supporting arm. The one he awarded the Jambos in stoppage time was on the soft side as well, Lawrence Shankland going down under minimal pressure from Ross graham before scoring to earn the visitors a dramatic late point.
And Neilson was less than impressed with the referee, the quality of the VAR pictures and the time taken to get what he felt were obvious decisions correct. He added: “The game became a bit of a farce at the end with VAR.
“The Craig Gordon incident as well. We’ve now got a goalkeeper who’s really badly injured. At the time, live, I could tell that Craig had got there first
“He gives the penalty, then he seriously must be five minutes watching that clip 30 times, when we can all see right away that it’s not a penalty. That’s a real worry for us that that’s happening
“Everyone can tell from the angle the ball releases out off Craig that the goalkeeper’s gotten to it. It baffles me.
“We’ve got an official there who’s meant to be one of the better ones but he’s made a decision like that. I seriously, seriously don’t know what’s going on at times.”
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