Aaron Lennon: ‘I will not be made a scapegoat’ for Tottenham’s Real rout
• Winger denies claims he suffered a last-minute illness
• Lennon reveals he fell in on Sunday
Aaron Lennon has denied that he was taken ill just before Tottenham’s match against Real Madrid kicked off at the Bernabéu last night, and insisted he “will not be made a scapegoat” for the club’s subsequent 4-0 defeat in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
The Tottenham manager, Harry Redknapp, initially named Lennon in his starting XI only to withdraw him at the last moment. “We lost Aaron Lennon a minute before kick-off,” he explained after the match. “He didn’t feel well. I asked him, ‘Are you fit enough to play?’ and he said, ‘I’ve got no energy, I’ve got no strength, I might last five minutes.’ It wasn’t a chance that was worth taking. It was crazy. If he felt that bad, we decided it wasn’t worth risking him. We had to change the team just as we were leaving the dressing-room.” Jermaine Jenas was drafted in, and was responsible for marking Emmanuel Adebayor when the Togolese striker opened the scoring in the fifth minute.
But Lennon used his Twitter account to deny the claims. “Saying I fell ill be4 the game is bull****,” he wrote. “I fell ill on Sunday morning where the med team put me on anti botics [sic], but only got worse b4 tues.”
A few minutes later he added: “Believe me this is 1 game I did no wnt to miss and still devo [devastated] now!!!! but will not be made a scapegoat saying they only knew jus b4 KO.”
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