Adebayor has no regrets

Adebayor has been handed a three-match ban for violent conduct following an incident in Manchester City’s 4-2 win over Arsenal last weekend.

Adebayor claims he did not intend to hurt his former Arsenal team-mate.

“I am sorry Robin got hurt, but I can’t regret something I did not mean to do,” Adebayor told The Sun.

“Anybody who knows me knows I would not set out to hurt anybody and I would especially not mean to hurt an old team-mate.

“I really am glad Robin was OK because I know my stud was close to his eye, but there was really nothing I could have done – there was no way I could have got out of the way in time.”

He added: “People talk about us as being football players and the money we earn, but just because we are fortunate it does not mean we need to take abuse.

“If you were to abuse a man in the street for over an hour he would react and it would be a worse reaction than a goal celebration!

“There is only so much abuse a man can take until he reaches breaking point.

“I was being abused by people who six months ago were singing my name and the abuse was for no reason.

“I scored and I wanted to show people it is not a good idea to abuse me. I really didn’t understand it at all.

“I was running on pure emotion and when you take emotion out of football we are going to have a big problem.

“People say I had time to think because I ran the length of the pitch, but that is not true.

“I was abused all match and scored a goal I knew would win the game for us. Ten seconds is nothing. Your emotion is going to last a lot longer than that.”