Sunderland midfielder Luke O’Nien provided a light-hearted response after some interesting reports came out after the Black Cats’ pre-season friendly with Roma.
Roma manager Jose Mourinho, upset with some of O’Nien’s challenges on his players, stormed on to the pitch during the game to demand that the 27-year-old be sent off. Roma and Sunderland faced each other in Albufeira on Wednesday, and O'Nien certainly left his mark when he caught defender Roger Ibanez in the face with a stray elbow.
The challenge left Ibanez grounded and in need of treatment which infuriated Mourinho, who was left in disbelief as to how the Sunderland man was not sent off. When the altercation on Wednesday was revealed on social media by bet365’s Twitter account, O’Nien provided a hilarious response.
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Reacting on his Instagram page, O’Nien posted a screenshot of the bet365 tweet on Saturday night with a funny caption. The post read: “'Mrs: Shall we go to Rome for our Honeymoon?' 'Me: I think we will give Rome a miss for a while!'".
O’Nien had already received a yellow card shortly before the Ibanez challenge, which occurred in the 35th minute of the game and managed to make it to half-time without any further incidents occurring before he was subbed off at the break for Daniel Neil.
Meanwhile, the other player involved in the challenge, Ibanez, was unable to make it to the break after his blow to the face, and he was replaced in the 44th minute by Riccardo Calafiori. Roma won the game 2-0, thanks to two goals in the final 15 minutes from Felix Afena-Gyan and Nicolo Zaniolo, which should have calmed down their manager slightly by full-time.
Moreover, Ibanez could play the second half of Roma's 2-0 win against Portimonense on Saturday, indicating that the facial injury he suffered in the Sunderland game was not as severe as first feared.
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