Stoke captain Ryan Shawcross claims Karl Henry and Nigel de Jong are being unfairly criticised for incidents that will always happen in modern football. Wolves skipper Henry was shown a red card on Saturday for a sliding tackle that sent Wigan's Jordi Gomez into a cartwheel, and a challenge from City midfielder De Jong the next day left Newcastle's Hatem Ben Arfa with a broken leg.
In February Shawcross found himself in the spotlight having made a tackle that fractured Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey's leg, and the Potters centre-back insists the speed of the game means that some challenges will inevitably be mis-timed.
Asked if he felt the criticism of players like Henry and De Jong was too harsh, Shawcross said: "Yes, sometimes it is.
"As a player, the likes of Henry and De Jong I'm sure didn't go out to injure another player on purpose.
"It's part and parcel of football - they are tough-tackling central midfielders whose games are based on making tackles, winning the ball and then giving it to the ball-players. Sometimes injuries are caused.
"You have just got to accept in these times, with the ball moving so fast and the player moving so fast, sometimes you are going to mis-time tackles and that is when injuries can happen."
He added, "It is just a case of half-seconds between you getting the ball or not, and sometimes if you don't get the ball, you can cause serious injury, which has been shown at the weekend.
"But it is part of football and something that we have to accept."
