“The Worst Tackle I Ever Did Was On Mikel” – Crouch

Former England international, Peter Crouch has admitted that a tackle he made on former Super Eagles captain John Obi Mikel was reckless.

Crouch, speaking on BBC 5 Live Sport podcast said his tackle on Mikel, although difficult to accept at the time, felt like “three red cards” when he sees it again.

It was a match between Chelsea and Liverpool in the Carling Cup.

The former Stoke City star, had also blamed referee Martin Atkinson for not taking good time to assess the situation but more than fourteen years since it happened, it’s a good time to say sorry.

“The worst tackle I ever did was on Obi Mikel. Liverpool against Chelsea in the Carling Cup.

“The whole game I’ve been receiving balls and he’s been basically told to mark in front of me. So the centre-half is behind me, and him and, here.

“And he’s basically standing all over my toes and I’m trying to chest things away and he’s putting his head in my face and his elbows around me all game.

“I’ve been telling the ref all game, all game, all game and I’m getting nothing. We’re about 70 minutes in now and it’s been going on all game.

“And it’s happened again and the ball has broken off and another one of these elbows and things he’s done to me – the ball’s broke there just posted perfectly and he’s facing the stand and obviously I’ve switched, lost the plot and tried to take him out basically.

“But I’m not proud of this, if he’s listening to this, which I think in no way he’ll be John Obi Mikel, I’d to apologise because the red mist was that… it was like an outer body experience.

“After the game, I thought he’d dived! Afterwards I got back, and I thought I’ll have a look back at that tackle. I had a look and I thought, oh no! (laughs). That’s in fact three red cards!

“What on earth was I thinking. It’s just something that I can’t explain. He’d been winding up the entire game and now I just completely lost it.”