Thomas Frank found the perfect words to sum up the spectre of emotions in football following James Maddison’s injury and Heung-Min Son’s farewell in Seoul on Sunday.
Described as a ‘beautiful moment’ afterwards by Thomas and Sonny, the 1-1 draw against Newcastle United at Seoul’s World Cup Stadium was somewhat overshadowed by an injury late in the game to Madders, who collapsed in agony holding his right knee and was stretchered off.
Thomas gave an honest assessment post-match on the injury, ‘most likely he has a bad injury’ as he spoke to SPURSPLAY in the tunnel as it poured down outside.
“I would say that today's game is the perfect picture of life in football can be so brutal and so beautiful,” he said. “So brutal with Madders that most likely he has a bad injury, we need to be honest with that, it’s the same knee as the previous injury. Of course, we don't know the full assessment of it, so we need to see that.
“Then it’s so beautiful with what happened to Sonny from his team-mates, the fans, Newcastle players, they showed fantastic respect. So, that's life in football in in one situation.”
It was put to Thomas that you couldn’t help but be drawn into the pure emotion with Sonny in his home city. “It was extremely emotional, I must say. There was nothing planned there. I just know that he had to have a single substitution, that was the only thing, and then he started with one walk, then another, then all the Newcastle players came over, then they had the tunnel where they all clapped him and patted him on the back.
“I thought that was that was extremely beautiful, the fans as well, and then after when they went around, the players went to him, and they threw him the air and everything. It was a proper send off. I didn’t have to say too much, just ‘well done’, there wasn’t too much to say, he had to absorb it all, a fantastic, beautiful moment.”