Arsenal forward Gabriel Martinelli has apologized to Liverpool defender Conor Bradley after admitting that he wasn’t aware his opponent was seriously injured.
Bradley stayed down after clearing the ball out of play with moments remaining in Liverpool’s 0-0 draw away to Arsenal, and Martinelli reacted by throwing the ball at him and pushing his opponent. Although Martinelli and thousands of outraged Arsenal fans assumed that Bradley was time-wasting, he then left the field on a stretcher.
After the game, Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta defended Martinelli’s actions by claiming that his player wasn’t aware of the injury. Martinelli has since echoed Arteta’s assumption and has messaged the Liverpool defender directly.
“Conor and I have messaged and I’ve already apologized to him,” Martinelli announced in an Instagram story. “I really didn’t understand he was seriously injured in the heat of the moment.
“I want to say I’m deeply sorry for reacting. Sending Conor all my best again for a quick recovery.”
Bradley left the Emirates Stadium on crutches, and Liverpool will now await scans to see how severe the injury is. “I don’t know yet, but it doesn’t look great when you have to go off on a stretcher,” Liverpool head coach Arne Slot said.
“I think when we see the video, we probably both think the same, but we have to wait on the scans.” Slot also attempted to see things from Martinelli’s perspective when asked for his reaction to the incident.
“I don’t know Gabriel Martinelli but he comes across as a nice guy and I think the problem for him is, and it’s a problem in general in football, is there’s so much time-wasting and players pretending they’re injured during the game, you can sometimes be annoyed if you want to score a goal and you think a player is time-wasting,” Slot said.
“I cannot ask Gabriel Martinelli in the 94th minute, when it’s so emotional, for him to understand he plays Liverpool, who are a team that don’t go to the floor. I’m 100% sure that if he knew what the injury might be that he would never do that.
Martinelli was furious after Bradley went down injured, but didn’t realize it was genuine(Image: 2026 Marc Atkins)
“But it doesn’t look great if he has the injury we fear he might have, of course. But football, time-wasting, diving has come to the point that in the 94th minute players think that’s probably happening again because I’ve seen it against us so many times this season.”
Time-wasting has become a problem in elite soccer, and although more additional time is added to games than ever before in an attempt to combat the issue, tactics are still being used. Slot used Bradley’s legitimate injury as an example of how fake injuries can be dangerous to those who are actually in pain.
Bradley’s injury is set to be another headache for Slot, who is already short of defensive options. Liverpool has been in the market for a new defender, and that pursuit could accelerate with the January transfer window open.
Liverpool is also short offensively, with both Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike out due to injury. Mohamed Salah is unavailable due to international duty with Egypt, but will return before the end of the month.