‘Genuinely alarming’ – Graham Smyth describes what cameras missed after Augustin injury scare
The live stream of the Leeds United Under-23s game on Monday attracted thousands of Leeds fans, all keen to get their first glimpse of new striker Jean-Kevin Augustin.
And when he went down injured on the stroke of half time, hearts were in mouths and there was a surge of apocalyptic tweets sent out.
Augustin stayed down and got treatment from the physio as the camera panned over to follow the game.
The whistle went shortly after and the next sight of Augustin was of the striker hobbling down the tunnel. He didn’t come back out for the season half.
Yorkshire Evening Post journalist Graham Smyth was there and he said the sight of Augustin lying prostrate was “genuinely alarming” but that the cameras missed something.
Talking on the latest episode of the Inside Elland Road podcast, Smyth said, “The plan was for the first-team players to get 45 minutes.
“The plan was to take [Augustin] off at the break. Just before the break he comes deep to lay the ball off, gets clattered, stays down looking in absolute agony, the physio is called for.
“Hearts are in mouths and it was a genuinely alarming sight. He got up and hobbled to the sideline and the problem arose in that the camera had to follow the action and it didn’t show him jogging up the sidelines and waving to the referee frantically asking to come back on.
“It looked like he wanted to run it off and when the cameras came back to him it just saw him hobbling off down the tunnel. People assumed he was injured when he didn’t come back out.”
Leeds posted a picture of Augustin after the match with his thumbs up but that just prompted conspiracy theories with some fans saying the shot from the waist up was hiding the leg support.
Augustin has declared himself fit to play on Saturday against Nottingham Forest but fans might get a big clue as to whether he’s going to feature the day before.
Leeds Under-23s play again on Friday night against Derby in the Premier League cup.
If Augustin plays in that game, it’s highly unlikely that he’ll play any part against Forest on Saturday and we can only imagine the meltdown that will happen if that’s the case.
We’d like to think that he’ll be on the bench at the City Ground. And there’s every possibility that Big Kev will get a run-out towards the end.
Hopefully, however, he won’t be needed and the three points will already be secure.
In other Leeds United news, ‘Wow really?’, ‘The day you lost the fans’ – Many Leeds fans react to Radrizzani Twitter message