Swansea City have “reluctantly accepted” midfielder Jonjo Shelvey’s four-match ban after he was charged with violent conduct for elbowing Liverpool’s Emre Can, the Premier League club announced on Wednesday.
Shelvey swung his arm into Can’s face during Swansea’s 4-1 Premier League defeat at Anfield on Monday and although referee Andre Marriner allowed play to continue, the 22-year-old was charged retrospectively.
“Swansea City has reluctantly accepted the charge issued by the Football Association against Jonjo Shelvey for violent conduct following an incident in Monday night’s Barclays Premier League defeat at Liverpool,” Swansea said in a statement on their website.
“The Football Association said the incident with Liverpool’s Emre Can, which happened in front of the referee, ‘was not seen by the match officials but caught on video’.
“While the club supports Shelvey’s statement that the incident was unintentional, it does not believe the outcome of an appeal would prove positive for the club or player.”
Shelvey will serve a four-match ban, rather than the customary three-match suspension, because he had previously been sent off against Everton at the start of November.
The midfielder, who joined Swansea from Liverpool in 2013, claimed after the game that he had caught Can by accident.
“Just wanna say didn’t intentionally elbow Emre Can was just trying to get my arm across to get round him and it’s come off as (if) I’m trying to hurt another play and I can assure you that that isn’t the case,” he wrote on Twitter. “And I had apologised to Emre Can for catching him.”
Shelvey will miss Thursday’s Premier League trip to Queens Park Rangers and Saturday’s FA Cup third-round tie at Tranmere Rovers, as well as Swansea’s subsequent league games at home to West Ham United and Chelsea. –Â Agence France-Presse
