Ireland coach Vera Pauw said her players “feared for their bodies” in an abandoned women’s World Cup warm-up match, claiming opponents Colombia played “outside the rules of the game”.
The Irish, who opened the World Cup on Thursday against hosts Australia in Sydney, called it quits after 23 minutes of the closed-door clash at their Brisbane training base on Friday.
It followed veteran midfielder Denise O’Sullivan being carted off to the hospital for checks after suffering a shin injury — the latest in a series of tough tackles.
Ireland Football later tweeted that scans showed no fracture and “Denise will work with medical staff on a return to play procedure”.
“We do not fear any physical contact, you know that, we are ourselves a team that within the rules of the game, we are a very tough-playing team,” Pauw told Irish radio show “Off the Ball” from Brisbane late Saturday .
“The players, (for) the first time since I am coaching them, they feared, they feared for their bodies.”
Dutchwoman Pauw, who previously coached Scotland, the Netherlands and South Africa, said the challenge on O’Sullivan was “not within the rules of the game and she was in awful pain”.
“I went to the coach of Colombia and I said: ‘I need help from you, we need to calm this down. We all want to go to the World Cup’.”
The Football Association of Ireland said in a statement that the play “became overly physical and it was decided, following consultation with the match officials, to end the game”.
The Colombian Football Confederation responded that “the processes and training of our national teams are framed within the rules of the game, healthy competition and fair play”.
“We respect the decision of our rival team,” it added of Ireland abandoning the match.
Colombia kick off their World Cup campaign against South Korea in Sydney on July 25.
mp/arb/sco