Luke O’Nien has been told he is ‘absolutely mad’ because of something he did in Sunderland’s defeat to Watford.
Luke O’Nien claimed the captains armband once again as Corry Evans kept his place on the bench.
The defender was unable to prevent his team from a second successive defeat though, with the only goal of the game arriving on the hour mark to hand Watford all three points.
O’Nien had helped the Black Cats to four clean sheets in their previous seven matches, and while they couldn’t keep another at Vicarage Road, the captain did prevent a huge opportunity for the Hornets to take the lead just six minutes before their opener.
As a Watford player looked to ping a ball to their attacker and potentially put them through one-on-one with Anthony Patterson, O’Nien leaped in the air and blocked the ball with both of his hands.
The 29-year-old was booked as a result, though Watford appeared to be adamant that he should have been dismissed.
Luke O’Nien’s controversial yellow card
After a video of the incident was shared on X, Second Tier podcast replied saying: “Luke O’Nien is absolutely mad”.
It’s not the first time the centre-back has gone viral on social media, with one memorable incident occurring during Sunderland’s win over Norwich in March 2023.
Jacob Sorensen clashed with O’Nien and well he looked ready to start a fight, O’Nien instead attempted to kiss him.
Was O’Nien in the wrong?
The defender’s yellow card against Watford hasn’t gone down quite as well though, with many supporters criticising him.
O’Nien could have stopped a goal though, with the Hornets likely to be through on goal had he not blocked the pass.
He was clearly very committed and was willing to take the risk of a sending off, but fans would have been extremely frustrated if they had gone down to ten men because of it.
A lot of the controversial things he does for Sunderland are all in good spirits and tend to add something to the game that we are lacking, but maybe sometimes he does try to take it a step too far.
