CONOR BRADLEY was spotted leaving the Emirates on crutches after his horror injury sparked “disgraceful” antics from Gabriel Martinelli.
Liverpool star Bradley went down in pain late on in his side’s 0-0 draw against Arsenal on Thursday.
The right-back looked in agony as he collapsed to the ground after appearing to slip.
But Bradley’s injury prompted a bizarre response from Arsenal opponent Martinelli, who angrily tried shoving the right-back off the pitch.
It sparked a huge melee as tempers spilled over between the two sides.
And Martinelli’s actions came back to haunt him as Bradley was eventually stretchered off the field.
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Now, Arne Slot’s side could be without the Northern Irishman for some time.
Exclusive video from SunSport at the Emirates showed Bradley leaving the stadium on crutches.
The defender moved gingerly as he limped his way to Liverpool’s team bus.
And the Reds will be sweating over his fitness amid an injury crisis that saw both Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike miss Thursday’s match.
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Martinelli’s behaviour towards Bradley prompted a major backlash from pundits, with Gary Neville leading the charge on comms for Sky Sports.
He said: “You can’t push him off the pitch. 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. Disgraceful.
“I’m surprised a Liverpool player hasn’t gone over and whacked Martinelli there.”
Neville’s sentiments were echoed by former Manchester United teammate Roy Keane.
The Irishman raged: “I didn’t like it at all. 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.
“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 ace Daniel Sturridge agreed, adding: “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.”
However, Liverpool boss Arne Slot refused to condemn Martinelli’s action.
He explained: “I don’t know Gabriel Martinelli but he comes across as a nice guy.
“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.”
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta agreed, noting: “Probably he doesn’t know because knowing Gabi, there is zero intention.
“I don’t know what happened to Conor, but hopefully it’s not bad, but obviously, there is no intention from Gabi to do anything bad to him.”
