Footballer KO’d By Brutal Challenge But Manager Says It Only Would've Been Red Card If Player Had ‘Died’

A horror challenge in Russia left Darko Jevtic bleeding and unconscious, but his manager claimed the midfielder would have "to die" for the referee to send off his opponent.

Jevtic's Rubin Kazan were playing Khabarovsk SKA in the Russia Cup when striker Vladislav Bragin leapt, supposedly for a header. He missed the ball entirely, but Bragin's forearm then body crunched sickeningly into the face of Jevtic, who stayed down.

When Rubin manager Leonid Slutsky attempted to replace the injured player, Jevtic collapsed. This led to fears that the 27-year-old had suffered a brain hemorrhage.

But despite the brutal physical force of the challenge and the resulting injuries, with Jevtic left bloody and senseless, referee Pavel Shadykhanov only punished Bragin with a yellow card. Absolutely baffling.

Rubin Manager Slutsky, who managed Russia at Euro 2016 before a short spell in charge of Hull City in the Premier League, gave the referee an total pasting post-match.

"According to the referee's view, the player would probably have had to have died on the pitch to justify his opponent being removed from the field," Slutsky told Sport24, as per Russia Today.

"In my opinion, when a football player breaks someone else's nose with his elbow, and a person simply loses consciousness from this blow... It was necessary, probably, to kill him for the referee to have made it a sending off.

"In my opinion, this is an unambiguous red card. I'm not trying to blame the referee for our defeat.

"But if we're talking about the episode with Yevtic, then that is a red card."

Ref Shadykhanov did eventually send off another Khabarovsk player, Grigori Trufanov, with 10 minutes left to play, but the home side held on for a 1-0.

There was a positive outcome of a far more important nature for Slutsky and Rubin, however, with the news that Jevtic had escaped the very worst effects of the on-field assault committed against him.

"We were afraid that there would be a cerebral hemorrhage but that did not happen, fortunately," Slutsky later revealed.

"He has a broken nose and a very severe concussion. The doctors gave him permission to fly."

Clearly Jevtic won't be playing for a while, but a challenge must be truly gruesome for a broken nose and a severe concussion to classify as good news. Here's hoping the Swiss midfielder makes a full and quick recovery.

Featured image credit: Twitter

Topics: Football News, Football, Russia

Alex Reid

Alex Reid is a writer at SPORTbible who’s previously strung words together for FourFourTwo, Boxing News, The Guardian and, yes, Cruise International (it’s about big ships, not Tom). Interests range from football and boxing to real sports like WWE and darts. He is not a cage fighter.

@otheralexreid