Joe Gomez: Ben Mee defends tackle that broke Liverpool defender's leg
Last updated on .From the section Football
Burnley centre-back Ben Mee has defended the tackle that fractured the leg of Liverpool's Joe Gomez.
Defender Gomez could be out for six weeks after he was taken off on a stretcher 23 minutes into Liverpool's 3-1 win at Turf Moor last Wednesday.
"I don't think anything was wrong with my tackle personally," said Mee. "You can't take tackles out of the game."
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp asked referee Stuart Attwell to stop Burnley being so physical during their match.
Asked whether his tackle on Gomez was dangerous, Mee said that "it's part of the game".
He added: "I've seen Liverpool make tackles and get the crowd up and things like that. For me, you can play fair, but you can also play hard as well.
"We're at the bottom of the table and we need to get out of it, so we're obviously going to work our socks off to win games. It was just unfortunate and I send my best wishes to him [Gomez]."
After last Wednesday's match, Klopp acknowledged that Mee's tackle was "the cleanest" committed by Burnley during the game, but was unhappy with the standard of their challenges overall.
"We all want to win football games, and there are different ways of doing it," said Klopp.
"I think the referee has to make sure that things like this don't happen constantly. It's not how it should be. Let's play football."
At a press conference last Thursday, before it was known that Gomez had broken his leg, Burnley boss Sean Dyche said it was a "fantastic tackle" by Mee.
