The English Football Association has been criticised after a video posted on one of its TikTok accounts appeared to poke fun at an incident which saw a Welsh player taken to hospital with a head injury.
Stockport County star Macauley Southam-Hales was told he was "very lucky" to avoid serious injury after colliding with advertising hoardings during his side's FA Cup replay win over Charlton Athletic on Wednesday night.
The 26-year-old right-back and former Cardiff City youth star was taken to hospital following the incident, which came a month after Bath City striker Alex Fletcher underwent emergency brain surgery after being injured in similar circumstances. The National League side's game against Dulwich Hamlet was abandoned following Fletcher's injury which saw him spend a month in intensive care before being discharged.
However, despite Southam-Hales' manager claiming the defender was "an inch away" from potentially fracturing his skill in the collision, those behind the official Emirates FA Cup TikTok account appeared to laugh off the situation by posting a light-hearted video of the incident following the game.
Showing the moment the defender collided with the hoardings after a challenge from Charlton's George Dobson, the short clip is dubbed over with an excerpt from an advert for the Nestle Crunch chocolate bar from the 1980s, in a take on a popular TikTok trend.
The video has now been deleted, with the FA apologising and saying it "should never have been published". However, it has been criticised by viewers who branded it "appalling" and "disgraceful".
Sharing the clip, Twitter user Joe Ward wrote: "Don’t think it’s a great look that the official @EmiratesFACup account is making joke TikToks about a head injury that sent our player to the hospital just a few weeks after a player nearly lost his life to a similar incident."
"Totally agree, disgusting and in poor taste," wrote another, with a third adding: "Wow. That's genuinely ridiculous. They got a kid running that account or something?"
Former Premier League striker Chris Sutton also voiced his disapproval, writing: "This is really not on from the @EmiratesFACup. There is nothing funny about serious head injuries…"
The Stockport star's mum, Tanya Southam-Hales, also slammed the video, writing: "This made me feel physically sick!! What poor taste this was and definitely not a joke when he ended up in hospital. JUST WOW!!"
She had previously thanked fans for their support after the defender was released from hospital, adding that she was "feeling very relieved". Taking to Twitter, she wrote: "A big thank you to everyone for your concern. Macca has been given the all clear from the hospital he will no doubt be feeling that today with the size of the lump. Feeling very relieved this morning."
Stockport manager Dave Challinor told BBC Radio Manchester following Wednesday night's replay win that Southam-Hales had "a whopper of an egg on the back of his head" following the incident, arguing that Dobson should have been sent off for the challenge which led him to collide with the hoardings.
"In the grand scheme of things, if he has a clear bill of health, he's very, very lucky," he said. "If you look at it from a football perspective, as much as people might not mean certain things or meaning to hurt anybody, if that's not endangering an opponent, I'm not sure what is. Regardless, it should be a sending off. He's probably an inch away from potentially a fractured skull."
He added: "We've had the ultimate learning experience from a player who's ended up in intensive care and has had to have an operation on his brain. The lump on the back of his [Southam-Hales] neck is scary. When people watch that video clip back it's not very good viewing. He's really fortunate if he comes out completely unscathed. We hope he does."
An FA spokesperson said: "The social media post has been deleted, and we sincerely apologise - it should never have been published. The post was created by an external agency and we will review our processes to ensure this never happens again."
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