Cardiff player injured by falling advertising screen a day after ball boy incident

SWANSEA, Wales (AP) — A Cardiff player cut his leg when an advertising screen fell on him under pressure from fans as the team celebrated a goal in a Welsh derby at Swansea in English soccer’s second division on Sunday.

The incident came a day after two West Ham players I had to pull a ball boy out from under a collapsed advertising screen during a goal celebration during a Premier League match at Crystal Palace, and led Cardiff assistant manager Omer Riza to question whether there was enough security at Sunday’s game.

Ollie Tanner had to have a cut on his leg treated after setting up the equaliser in a 1-1 draw, but he was then injured during the celebrations that followed, as Cardiff fans behind the goal ran towards the players and the advertising screens collapsed.

“You look around and think, ‘Maybe there should be more security around the pitch?’ So fans can’t go near the advertising boards,” Riza said. “That’s a heavy board that fell there and Ollie has a big cut on his leg. … He’s OK, he kept going and kept going but he had to leave the pitch for 30 seconds and it could have hurt us during that period.”

Swansea manager Luke Williams said every team must review their security measures around the perimeter of the ground following the weekend’s events.

“It’s something that needs to be looked at by the security people at all the clubs because there was an incident at the West Ham game as well,” Williams said. “So I suspect there will be a reaction to that from the authorities and the security people who will decide what the best course of action is.” ___

AP Football: https://apnews.com/hub/football