Son Heung-min and South Korea teammate Lee Kang-in have apologised and made peace over their Asian Cup altercation which left the Tottenham Hotspur captain with a dislocated finger.
A confrontation between the pair took place following a disagreement during a team dinner the night before South Korea’s semi-final defeat to Jordan. This led to a physical altercation involving a number of players, during which Son dislocated a finger as he tried to break things up.
Lee, 23, has since visited Son, 31, in London to reconcile. The pair later posted on social media to publicly apologise to one another and the South Korea public.
Son posted a photo of him and Lee on Instagram and wrote: “Kang-in sincerely reflected on himself and apologised to all the players on the team, including me.
“To prevent Kang-in from such wrong behaviour again, all of our players, as seniors of the national team, will take special care from his side so that he can grow into a better person and player.
“Although football is loved a lot, we sincerely apologise for causing such a fuss and we will work harder to make our Korean national team grow more this season. Once again, as the captain of the Korean national team, I sincerely apologise.”
Lee posted a black square on Instagram accompanied by the caption: “In the last Asian Cup, my dishonest behaviour left the entire team and football fans disappointed.
“I did something I should never have done in the dining room that day. I deeply regret it. Respect and dedication to the team is the most important thing but I lacked this a lot.
“I lacked consideration and respect in my words when dealing with senior players and colleagues. I promised to have a more correct attitude and courtesy (in the future).”
The South Korea camp at the Asian Cup is understood to have been far from harmonious, with divides between the senior and younger players.
Son is said to have felt that some of the younger players weren’t taking the tournament in Qatar seriously enough, while those like Lee rejected this suggestion. This came to a head the evening before their semi-final exit as a dispute broke out after a selection of the younger players in the squad wanted to leave the team dinner early to play table tennis, and Son objected to this.
South Korea were considered one of the pre-tournament favourites but progressed to the knockout stages after winning one of their three group fixtures and were eliminated by a Jordan side ranked 87th in the world.
Manager Jurgen Klinsmann was dismissed after the tournament.
(Koji Watanabe/Getty Images)
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