JOE BRYAN has said he did not deliberately try to hurt Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, according to Millwall boss Joe Edwards.
Bryan will miss the next three games after the FA handed him a retrospective punishment for what appeared to be an elbow to Sakamoto’s head during Millwall’s 2-1 loss at Coventry on Sunday.
Millwall will not contest the ban and Lions boss Edwards said he understands why the decision has been made.
But he did attempt to explain the context of the 30-year-old’s actions as he responded to the ban issued to his player.
Edwards told NewsAtDen: “It’s a tough one. I didn’t see it in real time but when I was analysing the game back on the wide angle, you can see an incident has happened. And if I’m honest on the wide angle, I overlooked it. But when this incident was presented to us [yesterday] as a disciplinary matter, I can see when you look at it back it obviously doesn’t look good.
“So in terms of an appeal, we haven’t made one. It’s one we know we’re not going to win.
“I speak to Joe and Joe tells me he’s made no intention whatsoever to deliberately go out and hurt the guy. From Joe’s point of view, someone’s made an action to quickly make a run to lose Joe and he’s made, what feels to him, an instinctive blocking action to prevent the guy from gaining an advantage through a run. Obviously, the kind of reflex Joe has used he has ended up catching him in the face with his arm and it does look bad and I can understand why that gets deemed as violent conduct.
“But it’s kind of one where it’s frustrating as [the ban] has happened after the event and you think you’ve come through the game and we’re preparing for [Ipswich] with Joe as part of the squad. When it comes retrospective [decisions], it’s always frustrating but Joe’s not a player who’s going to do anything deliberately but we can see why it’s been decided.”