‘Disgraceful’ Martinelli shoves injured Bradley before being stretchered off

Gabriel Martinelli nearly caused a mass brawl when he shoved a visibly distressed Conor Bradley off the pitch, moments after the Liverpool defender suffered an injury that required him to be stretchered off against Arsenal.

The Northern Irishman landed awkwardly when contesting for the ball with Martinelli during the closing stages of the Premier League clash and was visibly in serious discomfort.

However, Martinelli responded by throwing the ball at the downed defender before trying to push him over the sideline to get play restarted.

Gary Neville branded him an “idiot” and his actions “disgraceful” and was surprised that Liverpool players didn’t retaliate in stronger fashion.

"You can't push him off the pitch,”” Neville said on Sky Sports’ broadcast, who said he was lucky to escape a red card. “You cannot do that. That is so poor. I think an apology is needed.

"Bradley is being stretchered off. I'm fuming with Martinelli to be honest. I don't know how the Liverpool players didn't go over there and whack him, to be honest with you and take a red card. Absolutely disgraceful, that.”

Martinelli was not booked for his actions though Reds defender Ibrahima Konate was shown a yellow card for getting involved in the aftermath.

Dominik Szoboszlai highlighted that Bradley was in no way trying to time waste and emphasised the importance of player welfare over anything.

"I see that Conor twisted his knee. I don't know what is going on with him. He didn't want to come on to the pitch, time wasting. He couldn't think where he was,” Szoboszlai told Sky Sports.

"Then he comes to push him on the pitch. I understand they want to win, we want to win. But the health of the player comes ahead of everything else."

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However, Liverpool manager Arne Slot somewhat came to the defence of Martinelli as he sought to not escalate the situation.

"I don't know Gabriel Martinelli but he comes across as a nice guy,” Slot said in his press conference.

"The problem for him, and it’s a problem in general in football, is that there is so much time-wasting in the final parts of games that sometimes you can be annoyed when you want to score a goal and you feel a player is pretending to be injured.

"I'm 100 per cent sure if he knew what the injury might be, he wouldn’t do that."

Others were far less understanding and the criticism nevertheless continued after full-time, with Roy Keane echoing the sentiment of his former Manchester United teammate Neville.

"I didn't like it at all,” Keane said. “It happened to me once. I was badly injured and a player stood over me. It's not good. We know football, the player is a good lad.

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"Throwing the ball at him, standing over him and getting a little knee on him. He tries to force him off.

"That behaviour is an absolute disgrace. He's a good boy to roll over himself. Hopefully, Martinelli will have a look at it and hopefully, he'll apologise for it. Not good stuff that."

Former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge then added: "It's disappointing to see. There's passion and there's being a winner, there's wanting to help your team-mates, but you've got to be respectful as a footballer.

"Injuries are never a nice feeling. Martinelli is thinking time wasting but you've got to be self aware enough to see the guy is down. You've been there before.

"It's disrespectful. It's probably worse than disrespectful."

Mikel Arteta, meanwhile, stuck up for his player and defended his character before wishing Bradley well.

“Knowing Gabi he is an incredible lovely guy and I hope Conor is well, I will have a word with him to understand that,” Arteta said.