New York Red Bulls midfielder Dru Yearwood was handed a red card during the club's 2-0 defeat to Philadelphia after he unintentionally injured two fans.
In the latter stages of Sunday's MLS clash, a frustrated Yearwood gave away a foul near the touchline.
Moments later, the former Southend United man reacted by kicking the ball into the stands – an action that injured 'a couple' of fans in the Red Bull Arena crowd. You can see that incident in full below.
As you can see in the footage above, an apologetic Yearwood climbs over the front row seats to approach one of the injured supporters, but the midfielder was shunned away by another fan nearly.
Then, the camera panned towards an upset child, who was in tears after appearing to be struck.
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Yearwood has since released a statement following the incident. "I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart to the fans who were hit by the ball I kicked at Saturday's match," he said.
"My emotions got the best of me on this day, and I've let down the entire organization and every single New York Red Bulls fan. I hope the fans are OK and that they can forgive me."
Major League Soccer also reacted after the full-time whistle, saying; "The safety of everyone that attends our events at Red Bull Arena is of the utmost importance to our organization.
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"Dru is incredibly remorseful and knows his actions were inexcusable, We will take measures to discourage this from occurring again.
"We along with Dru will continue to stay in contact with families to check on their well-being."
It was an evening to forget for Yearwood and New York as goals from Mikael Uhre and Daniel Gazdag sealed all three points for league leaders Philadelphia.
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After their latest defeat, Gerhard Struber's side sit 13 points behind The U's, who have only lost four times in 30 games this season.
Topics: MLS, Major League Soccer, USA
Jack Kenmare