Roberto is awaiting Saldado's apology

Roberto Martinez has responded to digs by Andre Villas-Boas on Romelu Lukakua regarding his collision with Hugo Lloris on Sunday by suggesting that if he believes the Belgian needs to apologise, Spurs' Roberto Soldado might extend Phil Jagielka the same courtesy.

The Tottenham boss has gone public with his complaints that Lukaku could have jumped over his goalkeeper in the incident that left the goalkeeper briefly concussed and sparked a debate in the media about whether or not the Frenchman should have stayed on the field.

Martinez insists that Lukaku could not have avoided Lloris and believes that if aspersions are being cast, Soldado should be apologising for a deliberate elbow on Phil Jagielka for which he escaped censure by referee Kevin Friend and his assistants.

"The good thing is that you can watch the replay and you can see the video evidence," Martinez says.

"Romelu, all he's doing is carrying on his run. He cannot disappear [out of Lloris' path]. It's unfortunate.

"I don't think Andre Villas-Boas mentioned that there was any intent or any wrongdoing from Romelu. I think he only mentioned that maybe he expected a bit of an apology.

"We're waiting for Roberto Soldado to apologise to Phil Jagielka and use the same phone call so we don't have to spend two phone calls."

Martinez also backed calls to stop managers making decisions on players with concussion:

"If there is a strong view from the medical side that a concussed player should come off we should look into it and make a rule," said Martinez.

"I don't think it should be a manager's decision whether you take a player off or not. It should be part of the game and a law. It would be very unfair to be a manager in a position where you have to take a player off just to avoid any sort of risk without having that medical knowledge."

Quotes or other material sourced from Click Liverpool





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