Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has supported Michael Oliver's choice to let play continue during the build-up to Manchester United's opener against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.
The dispute emerged moments before Bryan Mbeumo opened the scoring for Ruben Amorim's team. Bruno Fernandes seized upon a loose ball in midfield following a collision between Virgil van Dijk and Alexis Mac Allister. The Liverpool midfielder tumbled to the turf, but Oliver signalled for play to proceed, allowing the Red Devils to launch an attack.
The United skipper swiftly found Amad, who teed up Mbeumo for the strike. Gallagher examined the incident on Sky Sports' Ref Watch programme and supported Oliver's judgement.
Gallagher said: "Is there a foul? No, because it's Van Dijk who comes in behind Mac Allister. Michael Oliver assess it and says 'no foul' and play goes on very quickly.
"He's forced to break with it and so is the assistant, so neither see Mac Allister behind them.
"Within five seconds, the ball is in the net. The first time they see Mac Allister down, the ball is in the net, so that's the first time they can go back [and check him]. It's just an unfortunate incident."
Alexis Mac Allister's head injury did not stop play
Alexis Mac Allister's head injury did not stop play (Image: Getty Images)
Following the match, Arne Slot was questioned about his thoughts on the goal's legitimacy. The Liverpool manager said: "I think the main thing we should do now, I should do now, is not complain, blame or do these kind of things.
"We could have done much better after Macca was on the floor, we should have done better.
"But the healthcare of a player is something that is important and if a player needs to have four stitches, you would hope that everybody understands that he needs immediate treatment.
"But it didn't happen. But, again, we could have done better, so that's not the reason why we lost this game today - the reason is because we missed far too many chances to win a game of football."
Slot went on: "Again, I've said it here many times and I'm hoping that I'm not just saying it to you, but everybody understands this a bit better, we are not a team - which I see a lot in football - that goes to the floor pretending it's a head injury, so they kill the counter-attack.
"That's not who we are. We never go to the floor, we always are a fair team.
"So if a player of us is then on the floor you would hope everybody would say, 'It's Liverpool, they don't do these kind of things, so let's blow a whistle.'
"But, again, that's not an excuse for us conceding the goal and that's not an excuse for us losing this game of football."