Many were shocked to see Son Hyun-min wearing the strap against Jordan in the Asian Cup semi-final on February 6. No injuries were reported till the previous day. But he entered the match with a finger problem. Four days later, this Tottenham star came down with a strap on his right finger in the match against Brighton in the Premier League.
After more than a week, it became known that Son broke his finger in a fight with his South Korean teammates. The 31-year-old forward suffered a dislocated finger on his right hand. The Korea Football Association (KFA) confirmed that the accident occurred after a fight broke out between the teams the night before the Asian Cup semi-finals.
South Korea lost 2โ0 to Jordan in the semi-finals of the Asian Cup. In the match, Jordan could not take a single shot on the goal post, the Sandar team, which is 64 steps ahead in the FIFA ranking.
The Sun first reported the incident of Sanad’s fight the night before the Jordan match. Today, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that KFA confirmed the published news as true. An official of the Korean Football Association said, “The incident happened after some young players went to play table tennis.” Son Hyun-min and several other senior players got involved. When there was a fight between the players, Son got injured in the finger.
Yonhap reported details of the incident, citing a source familiar with what happened that night. PSG wingers Lee Kang-in, Seol Yong-woo and Jeong Woo-young went to play table tennis in the next room after dinner. Others, including Son, came later. Captain Son heard the noise from the table tennis room while eating and told them to be quiet. But they weren’t listening. Son grabbed the collar of Lee’s shirt at one stage. LiโO gets angry and punches Son, although Son moves his head away and is not hurt. Son’s finger was broken when the other players came and tried to save him in the scuffle between the two.
According to The Sun, the fight broke out after Son told the young players to shut up after some disrespectful words were uttered by them. Apart from this, Son had planned to have dinner together to increase team cohesion on the day before the important match. But he was unhappy that the young players were eating up the early days to play table tennis.
According to Yonhap, some senior players (except Son) told coach Jurgen Klinsmann after the incident that Lee should not play against Jordan the next day. However, the German coach did not respond to their request. Like the other matches against Jordan, Lee was in the starting XI.
Lee and Son both scored three goals each in the Asian Cup. However, after going to Qatar with the dream of the title, they came under heavy criticism as they were knocked out before the final. There is also uncertainty over the retention of coach Klinsmann’s job. The KFA will discuss Klinsmann’s future with the national team committee on Thursday. Klinsmann is also scheduled to join the video conference from the US.
