Ireland manager Carla Ward has branded the backlash against Ruesha Littlejohn’s red card as “disgusting”, urging social media companies to address mental health damage.
The experienced Crystal Palace midfielder is expected to be hit with a hefty ban after slamming Hannah Cain to the ground in Sunday’s English League Cup win over Leicester City. The English FA have stated that the standard three game suspension is ‘clearly insufficient’.
Littlejohn went straight into international camp for Saturday’s friendly against Hungary in Marbella, admitting “emotion overspilled” in the incident that has gone viral.
Ward, who managed the Glaswegian at both Birmingham City and Aston Villa, preferred to talk up the reaction when the matter was raised during Friday’s pre-match press conference.
She cited the cases of player Maddy Cusack and manager Matt Beard, both of whom passed in tragic circumstances, as evidence for the likes of X to monitor the vitriol that can appear in cyberspace.
“Ruesha has just acknowledged it was a moment that she deeply regrets,” said Ward.
“The one thing that I don’t like, being really honest, is the outpouring of abuse on social media, in my opinion, has been a disgrace.
“When do we ever learn? When do we learn that battering people in that way doesn’t end well?
“At what point do we start learning? I was close to Maddy. We lost Maddy. I was close to Beardie. We lost Beardie.
“I’m sick of seeing it. I’m sick of seeing hurls of abuse at people. She’s a human being. She’s somebody’s daughter. She’s somebody’s sister. It’s not okay.
“I look at Ruesha and it’s not just because I’ve got a long-standing relationship. She’s a player. I’ll look after all my players and some of the stuff I’ve seen this week is disgusting.”
Asked what should be done to eradicate the plague of abuse, Ward said: “Honestly, I don’t know.
“I think the likes of X are getting worse and worse. I just hope when my daughter grows up it disappears because I think it’s a really vile place. I don’t know.
“I think organisations need to help and social media need to do better. Do I think it’s going away? No, I think it’s only going to get worse. We’re not talking about defending the incident here.
“We’re talking about what follows. We need to do more to protect players because they’re human beings and human beings need looking after.”
Littlejohn submitted her response to the English FA before Thursday’s deadline.
She said: “I regret letting my emotions spill over on the pitch. I’m probably quite an emotional person and player. I do regret it overspilled into the game. I think that’s not who I want to be on the pitch. I think we can learn from it and move forward.
“I’m surrounded by good people here in the Ireland camp and they’ve helped me through a tough week.
“Now it’s just nice to be back in green and be with all the girls. We’ve had a great week. Like Carla touched on out here, it’s nice to be out in sunshine too. It’s been a really positive week.”
