Pearce rules key man out of World Cup
Defender Alex Pearce had an interesting international debut under Martin O'Neill with the Republic of Ireland yesterday.
The Royals player started against the 2006 World Cup winners and put in a solid performance to keep the Italians at bay in a 0-0 draw. However, he will remember this game mostly by being involved in a challenge that left Italy skipper Riccardo Montolivo with a broken leg.
This now means the AC Milan midfielder will now miss the World Cup this month and his pre-season too. The challenge from Pearce itself was not a malicious one and went completely unpunished by the referee and rightly so - it was merely unfortunate timing for Montolivo
As expected, a few Italian fans have taken to Twitter to curse Pearcey, but to argue it was a bad challenge is laughable. I'm sure he will be remorseful, but will be pleased with his performance and would have given Martin O'Neill something to think about for future plans.
