Aston Villa’s Matty Cash suffered a blow in Poland’s 3-1 win over Finland in a World Cup qualifier on Sunday.
The incident took place in the first half when the right-back was at the receiving end of a tackle from Finland defender Jere Uronen.
Cash was in pain but continued on the pitch until he was replaced by Legia Warsaw’s Paweł Wszołek after the first half. This paid off as the Aston Villa man opened the scoring for Poland in the 27th minute.
After the tie, Poland manager Jan Urban insisted he had to convince the 28-year-old to be substituted after the break. Cash also spoke to the reporters in the mixed zone, and his comments are relayed by Meczyki.pl.
“I got kicked. Then I played another 25 minutes. I told the coach I wanted to play, but the coach decided it would be better to substitute me and convinced me to do so,” he said.
Last week, Cash scored the equaliser in Poland’s 1-1 World Cup qualifiers draw against the Netherlands.
Poland have enjoyed a good start under Urban, who was appointed as Michał Probierz’s successor in July. The latter resigned, following a public fallout with Robert Lewandowski after taking away the armband from the Barcelona striker.
The Aston Villa fullback has heaped praise on the current national team manager and his methods, and Sport.pl have relayed his comments.
“He’s a very good coach. I know it’s easy to be here and say, ‘Oh, he’ll definitely say the coach is good.’ But personally, I think he’s good, also from a tactical standpoint. Urban is also a great person. He gives the players confidence, and that’s how you get the best out of a player,” Cash explained.
“Our coach is very defensively aware and knows how to transform the team into a strong structure. When you play football, you have to defend well. And you could already see that the way we play makes us difficult to beat. It’s not easy to play against us. We also have great players in attack who can score goals and create chances. I’m impressed, this week has been fantastic.”