Ian Wright has jumped to the defence of fellow ITV World Cup pundit Eni Aluko after his colleague was targeted by online trolls over a slip of the tongue while live on air.
Former Chelsea and Juventus star Aluko, who also won more than 100 England caps during her 18-year playing career, is part of the ITV punditry team for the tournament in Qatar, analysing the action from several games alongside the likes of Roy Keane, Gary Neville and Graham Souness, as well as Wright.
However, Aluko was on the receiving end of considerable online criticism after making a mistake live on air ahead of Brazil's 4-1 quarter-final win over South Korea on Monday night.
Asked by host Mark Pougatch about the impact that in-form Brazil striker Richarlison had made during the tournament so far, Aluko replied: "He's the top scorer for Brazil over the last two years. He's got a great record, 19 goals in 40 appearances, you do the math on that – that’s one goal a game, pretty much."
While she had clearly meant to say that the Tottenham star had scored nearly a goal every other game for his country, viewers were quick to notice her mistake and take to social media to ridicule her.
Aluko had clearly meant to say the Tottenham man had scored nearly a goal every other game for his nation, but many viewers jumped on her for the mistake online. One troll branded the pundit "unqualified" while another claimed: "A woman should stick to women's football".
Following the backlash, Aluko responded to the trolls on Twitter the morning after the match. "Got myself a first class law degree, 102 caps and a doctorate but maths wasn’t always my forte," she wrote. "Nearly one in two games is the math on Richarlison. But some of you weirdo twitterati knew that already. Might also learn from the rest of the analysis conveniently ignored."
Former Arsenal striker Wright also leaped to his colleague's defence, telling those who had criticised her to "grow up". Also taking to Twitter, he wrote: "I've made countless mistakes live on air. The replies to this are horrible. You man are so pressed by women in football that you take pure pleasure in this. Grow up."
Wright's post was echoed by Channel 5 presenter Dan Walker, who confessed to making mistakes of his own while live on-air and argued that Aluko's blunder would have been forgotten about by viewers if she was a man.
"We all know what she meant and if either of the blokes alongside her had said it… it would have been ignored," he tweeted. "The bile beneath this says a lot more about the authors than Eni Aluko. P.S. I once called the Pentagon an 'octagonal shaped building in Washington'."
Aluko recently made history at the World Cup by being a part of the first ever all-female broadcast panel during the men's tournament alongside Karen Carney and Seema Jaswal, with the latter also defending her colleague by tweeting: "Aluko is an absolute joy to work with, knowledgeable, professional and makes my job so much easier."
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