Source: PA
Martinez not worried by physical style
Wigan boss Roberto Martinez defended the physical nature of the Barclays Premier League despite fearing a serious injury to one of his players for the second time in a week.
Last weekend, Birmingham's Craig Gardner was sent off for a tackle on Franco Di Santo that left the Argentinian nursing an ankle problem.
He recovered to take his place in the starting line-up for Sunday's 2-0 win against Wolves where, with only 11 minutes on the clock, Martinez looked on in horror as Karl Henry flew into a shin-high challenge on Jordi Gomez.
The Wolves captain was swiftly shown a red card by referee Lee Mason and there was relief all round the DW Stadium when Gomez got to his feet and was able to continue, later scoring the first goal.
The Spaniard said: "I've been here for 15 years. In League Two in 1995 there were seven challenges like that every 90 minutes. It's the nature of the game. You get physicality and bad tackles in every league in the world. I don't think it's anything different in the Premier League. I don't think we should take it out of context.
"In football you can make those decisions to be a little bit physical. If you get the ball, great, if you don't you're risking now to be off. Football is a contact game and you need to be strong enough to go into challenges but you don't want to see injuries. We had it last week with Franco Di Santo."
