SERGIO RAMOS has denied any involvement in the injuries to Mohamed Salah and Loris Karius in Liverpool’s Champions League final defeat – and suggested accusations are born out of jealousy.
Salah left the field in tears with a shoulder injury after colliding with Real Madrid captain Ramos in the first half, while doctors confirmed that Karius suffered a concussion.
Footage from the game showed the German goalkeeper, responsible for two of Real’s goals in the 3-1 defeat, go down after being struck by Ramos’s arm.
“They’ve given this a lot of attention, the Salah thing… I didn’t want to speak because everything is magnified,” Ramos said, as quoted by Spanish newspaper AS.
“I see the play well, he grabs my arm first and I fell to the other side, the injury happened to the other arm and they said that I gave him a judo hold.
“After the goalkeeper said that I dazed him with a clash with me, I am only missing Firmino saying that he got a cold because of a drop of my sweat.”
Ramos went on to lift the Champions League trophy for a third consecutive season.
And the 32-year-old centre-back believes such unprecedented success has led to many critics to target him for his behaviour in Kiev.
He said: “I spoke with Salah through messages, he was quite good. He could have played if he got an injection for the second half, I have done it sometimes but when Ramos does something like this, it sticks a little bit more.
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“I don’t know if it’s because you’re at Madrid for so long and win for so long that people look at it a different way.”
Ramos was speaking after meeting up with Spain’s squad ahead of the World Cup in Russia later this month.
They face England’s Group G opponents Tunisia in a friendly on Saturday as their final warm-up game.
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