Jan Bednarek suffers nasty fall after Gabriel Martinelli backs into him, forced off the pitch

Jan Bednarek was forced off against Arsenal after suffering a suspected concussion following a nasty tangle with Gabriel Martinelli.

The Polish defender begrudgingly left the field just before the break after suffering a horrible fall after the Arsenal forward backed into him.

Jan Bednarek substituted off due to a concussion sustained on the pitch #ARSSOU pic.twitter.com/oXyCAzWHbc

— 📹⚽️ (@EPL067) April 21, 2023

Duje Caleta-Car replaced Bednarek, who made his feelings known about the change as he protested the decision to Southampton's medical team as well as to manager Ruben Selles.

Gary Neville, who's on commentary duty, praised the decision made by the Southampton doctors as they stopped him from going back into the game.

The clash between Bednarek and Martinelli got fans online talking as they slammed the Brazilian's dangerous actions.

One Twitter user wrote: "Hoping Bednarek is okay. Don’t like strikers backing in to jumping defenders like that. Kane has done it for years and it’s nasty. Poor from Martinelli."

A second tweeted: "Leaning into a player in the air should be an automatic red next season, Martinelli absolutely axed Bednarek."

A third added: "Really heavy fall from Bednarek, Martinelli may have undercut him just a bit."

A fourth said: "Always so dangerous when a player falls the way Bednarek did after Martinelli undercut him there. Hope he's alright."

A fifth commented: "Poor, poor challenge from Martinelli. No chance of winning the ball but every chance of causing Bednarek serious injury."

Southampton took a two-lead following strikes from Carlos Alcaraz, who opened the scoring in the first minute following a Aaron Ramsdale mistake, and Theo Walcott.

Martinelli pulled one back.