THE grimace on Sean Dillon's face told the story of an afternoon of both physical and mental pain.
Off the field receiving seven stitches in a leg wound when Celtic opened the scoring in yesterday's League Cup final, his return to the field of play six minutes later would prove short-lived. Ten minutes into the second half and he was back in the dressing room again having been sent off for a high tackle on Emilio Izaguirre. Celtic, who would also miss a late penalty, went on to win 2-0 to lift the trophy.
"I'm very disappointed for the lads, the manager, the staff, the fans and my family," said the United captain, who admirably did not shy away from the media after the game. "When you're walking off the pitch you think the worst. But I was watching it inside and I thought the lads were excellent in their commitment and they way they tried to play. I'm devastated for them. I feel more for them than I do for myself with the way it's turned out."
United chose to play on with just 10 men while Dillon was being patched up, only to concede a goal during that time. The Irishman wasn't too happy with the challenge from Virgil van Dijk that caused the injury, and insisted the medical team could not get him back on the field any quicker.
"I'm not going to exaggerate it but it's a big gash, about three inches long maybe, and I needed seven stitches on it," he revealed. "I think he [van Dijk] left his leg in, I didn't like it. I get the ball, he gets my leg, and they get a throw-in. So that's very frustrating. At the time the injury was quite painful but the physio and the two doctors did a great job stitching me up. It was basically just to get me back out there as quickly as they could. It wasn't like I was just sitting in the dressing room chilling out."
Dillon had hoped his challenge on Izaguirre would merit no more than a booking. "There was no malice in it. I wasn't trying to hurt the guy. But because it's a little bit high I'm giving the referee the chance to send me off. I have to take responsibility for that. But I thought he was going to only give me a yellow. That's what I was expecting."
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