Eunan O’Kane has revealed that the Leeds United players are “disappointed” at Samuel Saiz for for spitting at an opponent during the team’s FA Cup defeat at Newport County.
The United playmaker was slapped with a mandatory six-match ban for the offence against County’s Robbie Willmott in stoppage time at the end of Leeds’ shock 2-1 defeat at Rodney Parade.
O’Kane became the first Leeds player to speak publicly about the incident when he addressed the media on Friday.
The Republic of Ireland international, as quoted by the personal Twitter account of Yorkshire Evening Post correspondent Phil Hay, said the players were “naturally disappointed” with Saiz but explained that the Spaniard had “apologised” to the squad for his actions.
O’Kane said the players were naturally disappointed with Saiz. Saiz apologised to them and O’Kane believes he’ll learn a lesson from his ban. #lufc
— Phil Hay (@PhilHayYEP) January 12, 2018
Saiz and Leeds chose not to appeal his red card against Newport, which means he will be sidelined until the Championship fixture at Derby on February 20 and will miss six league games as Leeds bid to maintain their play-off challenge.
OPINION
Little wonder the Leeds players are upset at Saiz. Credit to the player for admitting his wrongdoing and not attempting to defend the indefensible. That is all well and good, but the Spaniard’s absence for the next six league matches is a hammer blow to Leeds’ promotion challenge. The playmaker is comfortably Leeds’ outstanding attacking player, and only Pontus Jansson is in the same bracket in the entire squad. All the United players will privately feel angry at Saiz, as he is the conductor of the orchestra, and the team’s bid to clinch a top-six finish is now a lot harder.