Arsenal Ladies captain and assistant coach Kelly Smith has been prompted to remember her responsibilities by the Football Association, after comments made regarding Sunderland’s Abby Holmes.
The 36-year-old Gunners legend required surgery on torn ankle ligaments following a horror tackle from Holmes in her side’s 4-1 win over the Black Cats in the WSL 1. The former England international has since been outspoken in her opinion on the challenge that saw Holmes sent off, and wrote of the incident on kicca.com:
“There is no hiding the fact – the tackle was malicious and designed to do one thing only – to do serious damage.
“It was a disgraceful tackle and one fully intended to hurt me.”
She added: “I have had a lot of reaction from both my team-mates and others in the game and the verdict is the same – Holmes shouldn’t be playing in this league.
“I hope to be fully fit in three to four months’ time … right now, though, all I can think about is the tackle that ended my season and could have ended my career. And if I hadn’t retired from international football, it would have definitely ended my World Cup this summer.”
Following the comments, a spokesperson for Sunderland Ladies confirmed they had taken action over Smith.
“We reported Kelly Smith to the FA as we believe that her public statement is a breach of FA regulations and the players’ code of conduct,” they said.
“Abby strongly denies claims that there was any malicious intent in the challenge or that it was premeditated. Furthermore, she is taking legal advice regarding the nature of the remarks and as such it would be inappropriate to comment further at the present time.”
