IBRAHIMA SONKO fears being attacked at Chelsea by the maniacs who
have threatened to kill him. Reading centre-back Sonko visits
Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day for the first time since his horror
October clash with Carlo Cudicini.
And he is petrified someone could get on the pitch and fulfil one
of the many death threats he received after the collision which put
the Italian keeper in hospital. Sonko, 25, said: That incident has
gone away. But now the next game is coming up.
Ive been scared. You have to take the letters seriously. Some
people are nasty and capable of stupid things when it comes to
revenge. Reading midfielder Stephen Hunt also received threats of
revenge by post from so-called Blues fans, after accidentally
leaving Petr Cech with a depressed fracture of the skull in an
earlier incident.
Sonko added: Me and Stephen probably got letters from the same
people. Both Senegalese star Sonko and Hunt were cleared by the FA
of any blame for the two incidents. Yet that did not stop Chelsea
chief Jose Mourinho from launching a bitter attack on Sonko,
accusing Hunt of deliberately trying to maim Cech and blasting the
Berkshire Ambulance Service over their conduct.
Reading boss Steve Coppell has no intention of leaving either
player out of the fixture but admits Hunt could take a year to get
over the ordeal.
Coppell declared: It is not just another game, that is obvious.
Stephen is going to get a rough reception but that happens in
football when players go back to certain grounds or come up against
teams they have upset.
I have no plans to leave him out, though it will be a difficult
situation. He just has to deal with it. It may never be totally
forgotten. But I hope, in time, we can put it on the back shelf.
He has handled himself well, yet it is clearly still affecting
him.
Coppell also admits he has given up hope of Mourinho ever saying
sorry for his outburst despite the Chelsea managers apology this
week to Everton striker Andy Johnson.
Mourinho backtracked after tagging AJ a diver. But Coppell stated:
I saw he said sorry to Andy Johnson, yet I am not expecting any
apology from Jose.
He has his opinion on what happened that day with Stephen and he
is isnt going to change that. But we have ours. Our behaviour on
the pitch shows any conclusions against us are wrong.