Olympiakos coach Garcia keen to forget paper roll injury

The clash between Greek leaders PAOK and Olympiakos was called off by the referee before it even began after Garcia had to be taken to hospital with a facial injury suffered when hit by an unopened cashier’s paper roll.

“For me it is an incident that I want to forget as soon as possible and just focus on – and speak about – what I really love, which is what happens within the four lines of the pitch, and keep trying to develop my team into playing better football every day,” the 44-year-old Spanish coach said Tuesday on his Twitter account.

Deputy Minister of Sports and Culture Giorgos Vasiliadis on Monday branded a 27-year-old PAOK fan who was arrested for throwing the object as “an idiot who has put a team in danger of losing the championship”.

“Personally, I am not going to be happy, regardless of the punishment,” Garcia said, with PAOK facing sanctions that could include forfeiting the match 3-0, a points deduction, a heavy fine and playing several home matches behind closed doors.

PAOK currently lead the Greek league by one point from AEK, with Olympiakos, winners of the title each of the last seven seasons, six points back in third.

Garcia said the fallout from the incident would affect everybody.

“I wish this had never happened because in this case nobody wins, in my opinion we all lose, PAOK, Olympiakos, Greek football or all of us who love this sport, as a sport that we enjoy and that makes people enjoy it,” Garcia added.

The Olympiakos coach spent Sunday night at a heavily-guarded Thessaloniki hospital and was released the next morning after being diagnosed by a neurologist with sensitivity to the left temporal joint, dizziness, neck pain and nausea.