Alex Iwobi: Playing After The Welbeck Injury Was ‘Mentally Challenging’

Alex Iwobi admits it was difficult to play on…

Alex Iwobi admitted that the players were rocked mentally after witnessing Danny Welbeck’s serious injury with the 27-year-old suffering a big ankle injury, he told BT Sport.

Welbeck landed awkwardly on his left ankle as he jumped for a header, and was instantly in agony on the floor.

Our physio entered the fray and it didn’t take him long to see that something serious had occurred, with the rest of the medical team bringing on the oxygen pump and a stretcher.

The incident happened midway through the first half and so there was plenty of time to still win the game and secure first place and a passage into the last-32.

However, the intensity dropped a little bit from the players and in the stands, and Iwobi accepts that can be attributed to Welbeck’s injury.

“It is mentally challenging [playing on after a team-mate is badly injured] but sometimes it comes with the game, and Danny [Welbeck] has had a lot of injuries,” the 23-year-old said.

“We wish him the best and will keep on encouraging and motivating him to get back.”

We struggled to gather enough rhythm to put them under pressure, though Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang could’ve given us all three points had he not steered his shot into the side-netting.

For Iwobi, though, the visitors deserved credit for their rugged defensive display: “We have to give credit to Sporting and they were compact but we lacked a bit of composure, even from myself.”