England’s forward, Lauren James has apologized to the Super Falcons of Nigeria defender, Michelle Alozie after stamping on her during the 2023 Women’s World Cup round of 16 clash between the two countries.
Lauren James who has been one of the best players in the Lionesses of England’s squad looked frustrated in the game as she could not showcase her skills against a resilient Alozie.
After she and the Nigerian defender were involved in a challenge and the Nigerian player was left lying on her stomach on the pitch, a furious James stepped on the waistline of Alozie.
Initially, the referee didn’t catch the intensity of the challenge as she only showed James a yellow card. However, the VAR intervened and the yellow card was upgraded to a red card in the 86th minute.
England struggled for the rest of the game playing with a player less but managed to beat the Super Falcons 4-2 on penalties with Michelle Alozie being one of the players that missed her spot-kick.
Even though the Lionesses managed to scale through after the incident, Lauren James who is just 21-year-old has been subjected to different degrees of trolling online. Due to the trolling, she had to deactivate the comments section of her social media accounts.
Afterward, she took to her Twitter page to tweet an apology to Alozie and to England’s fans who were not happy that her action almost cost the Lionesses the game.
She wrote: “All my love and respect to you [Alozie]. I am sorry for what happened.
“Also, for our England fans and my teammates, playing with and for you is my greatest honour and I promise to learn from my experience.”
Also, a statement from the national team read: “Lauren is really sorry for her actions which led to the red card, and is full of remorse. It is wholly out of character for her.
“We will be supporting Lauren throughout and will be putting forward representation on her behalf.
“We fully respect FIFA’s disciplinary process and will not be making any further comment until after any decision has been made.”
England are expected to play Colombia in the quarter-finals at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. Lauren James is expected to miss the game due to the red card and could miss more games if FIFA decides to use the penalty of violent conduct rules against her.
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