Sydney FC Head Coach Ufuk Talay has blasted online trolls who have targeted young striker Patrick Wood while revealing the forward will miss an extended period of games due to a stress fracture in his ankle.
The Sky Blues boss revealed Wood has been playing through the pain for the last three weeks, but aggravated it against the Mariners and will miss the majority of the rest of the season.
Talay also hit out at the direct abuse his striker has copped online, including taunts to harm himself, following a missed chance in the game.
“Some comments and some messages that have been sent to him [Wood] have been quite disgraceful to be honest.
“I had a chat with him and I understand that we live in the public eye but what people don’t see is that he has had a stress fracture in his ankle for quite a few weeks and he has been playing through the pain,” Talay said.
“He has made the fracture worse in last week’s game and now we are going to lose him for 12 weeks, so there is a lot of work that goes into things behind the scenes that people don’t see and it is super unfortunate the timing of it. He’s currently in a boot and on crutches.
“These players wear their heart on their sleeve and all they want to do is the best for the club and the fans.
“These moments are going to happen in games. It won’t be the first and it won’t be the last and people need to remember that he’s only 21 and be a bit more respectful.”
On another note, ahead of the clash with Adelaide United on Saturday night at Allianz Stadium, Ufuk Talay knows that his side play an entertaining brand of football and knows that it brings eyeballs to the game.
The hard part for him can be finding that balance between entertainment and points on the board, which lately they have found having only tasted defeat in one of the last seven matches.
“We want to win games but we also want to do it in a way that our fans come to the game and actually enjoy it.
“Winning is important but at the same time when fans are paying x amount of dollars to come watch us play, I think they need to be entertained and that’s something that we thrive off.
“The A-League is very entertaining. It’s a league that you cannot work out and who’s doing what on which day, but that’s the great thing about football,” Talay concluded.
Talay will prepare his squad ahead of the Reds journey to Sydney at the family friendly kick off time of 6pm.
Match Details
Sydney FC v Adelaide United
Isuzu UTE A-League Round 17
Saturday 17th February 2024
Allianz Stadium, Sydney, NSW
Kick Off: 6:00pm AEDT
Gates Open: 5:00pm AEDT
Broadcast Live: Paramount+
Tickets: Click Here
Matchday Partner: Macquarie University