Ireland ‘feared for their bodies’ in pre-WWC friendly – boss

Republic of Ireland supervisor Vera Pauw has mentioned her gamers “feared for their bodies” throughout a Women’s World Cup heat-up match with Colombia that was referred to as off after 20 minutes following a sequence of strong challenges.

The Irish Football Association confirmed midfielder Denise O’Sullivan was taken to hospital for therapy on a shin damage through the friendly at Meakin Park in Brisbane, Australia, however was discovered to not have suffered a fracture and will nonetheless play for Ireland on the match.

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“We do not fear any physical contact, you know that, we are ourselves a team, that within the rules of the game, we are a very tough-playing team,” Pauw informed Irish radio present Off The Ball.

“The players, [for] the first time since I am coaching them, they feared, they feared for their bodies.”

The match was Ireland’s last heat-up match forward of their World Cup opener in opposition to Australia on July 20.

The Colombian FA additionally launched a press release that mentioned the Irish crew “preferred not to continue” and added “we follow the rules of fair play.”

“It was something I had never experienced before in my 47 years being involved in football, not as a player, not as a coach,” Pauw added to Sky Sports. “It started lively, a good game, normal, and then the atmosphere built up to becoming over-physical.

“Then there got here an enormous problem on Denise, a problem not inside the guidelines of the sport and he or she was in terrible ache. I went to the coach of Colombia and I mentioned: ‘I need assistance from you, we have to calm this down. We all need to go to the World Cup.'”