Jaap Stam has criticised Raphael Varane for his reaction to suffering an injury against Chelsea, claiming he 'can’t understand being so emotional on the pitch.'
United managed to claim a 1-1 draw at Chelsea on Saturday despite falling behind in the 87th minute through Jorginho's penalty. A fantastic header from Casemiro deep into injury time dragged Erik ten Hag's side level and earned them a point, which was the very least they deserved for another good performance.
A big negative coming out of the match though is that centre-back Varane, who has been forming a resolute partnership with Lisandro Martinez, limped off the pitch with an injury in the 60th minute. It's the second injury the Frenchman has suffered this month alone after he was also taken off in the defeat to Manchester City.
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Though it's not clear yet how serious the injury is, Varane was emotional as he left the pitch and struggled to hold back the tears with his chances of playing in November's World Cup now in doubt. However, Stam doesn't get why Varane was upset.
“He was very emotional,” the Dutchman told Optus Sport. “The game played on when he fell down and he just kept lying on the pitch basically and after, when he stood up, he was emotional. It looked like he had a problem with his hamstring or whatever but we don’t know yet.
"I don’t know what to say about this, he probably thinks he’s out of the World Cup but I can’t understand being so emotional on the pitch to be honest.
“It’s not only from a centre half’s point of view, you try to imagine yourself in the situation and why is he so emotional and why he is acting like that. There are other things that are worse than this, is what I think.”
Ten Hag was a bit more empathetic as he provided an update after the match: "Nothing in this moment," he replied when asked about Varane. "We have all seen he came off but with an injury like this we always have to wait a minimum 24 hours and the medical staff can do their job and can set the diagnosis.
"I can understand (his reaction), we can all probably understand he will be emotional but he also has to wait, you don't know. He's experienced but the medicals have to do their job, have to make an assessment, set the right diagnosis and from there on come to the conclusion."
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