Craig Levein has leapt to the defence of St Johnstone captain Liam Gordon and revealed he telephoned Tony Docherty over the Dundee manager’s “inappropriate” description of his captain’s aerial challenge with Michael Mellon.
Both players collapsed to the ground after contesting a high ball in injury-time of Sunday’s Dens Park clash.
It quickly became clear that Mellon had come off worst, with the 20-year-old taken to hospital wearing a neck brace.
Saints boss Levein was relieved to learn that the promising young striker is on the mend.
But he insists no blame can be attached to Gordon.
And he took issue with Docherty describing the challenge as “almost life-endangering”.
“His choice of words was inappropriate,” said Levein, who confirmed he phoned his opposite number to address the subject.
“I thought it was a strong challenge – the ball was there to be won.
“And, if Gordy hadn’t gone for it, I would have been shouting at him.
“Gordy actually wins the ball.
“It’s sickening when you see someone going down like that and you know immediately that it’s been a head knock.
“It’s worse when you see a player flop down because you know they’ve maybe gone unconscious.
“But Gordy is one of the best professionals I’ve ever worked with – he is a very decent human being.
“So he had as much concern about the young lad as everyone else did.
“We are all on the same page about that. It was sad to see it happen.
“And we agreed upon one thing – that the referee playing on was absolutely ridiculous.
“No one wants to see anyone getting concussion at any point in a match.”
Gordon hasn’t suffered concussion himself, Levein reported.
“Gordy appears to be OK,” he said.
“He hasn’t been out training but that’s because he felt his hamstring a bit.”
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