Nathan Bishop has become public enemy No. 1 to all Wrexham soccer fans.
The Manchester United goalie was a bit too amped up in his team’s 3-1 preseason loss against Wrexham and recklessly challenged Paul Mullin, slamming into the striker’s chest.
Mullin collapsed on the turf and was immediately tended to by both teams’ medical staffs before being helped up by two people and transported to a hospital.
He was diagnosed with a small puncture in one of his lungs.
Bishop was loudly booed by fans in the stands, but Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson may have been the most upset.
“I’m fuming about it, I’ve got to be honest with you,” Parkinson said. “It was a clumsy, reckless challenge in a preseason game and I’m not happy with it at all. We just got a call from the hospital to say there’s a small puncture in his lung. It’ll probably be tomorrow morning before we get the specialist to have a look at it. I haven’t seen the goalie and he’s probably best steering clear of us for the time being because we’re not very happy.
“It should have been a straight red [card]. If it’s not denying a goal-scoring opportunity, it’s still a dangerous challenge, so if you add the two scenarios together, he should have been off the pitch. It’s a dangerous challenge and obviously Paul Mullin is our talisman.”
United wasn’t pleased with Parkinson for fanning the flames and making Bishop a target for abuse from social media accounts.
The goalie took to Twitter to apologize to Mullin.
“Just wanted to share my sincerest apologies to @PMullin7. A complete misjudgement and a genuine accident with 0 malicious intent at all! Wishing you the speediest recovery and hope to see you back scoring goals as soon as possible,” Bishop wrote.
Despite the anger from Mullin’s team and fan base, he’s kept in positive spirits, posting an Instagram story with a picture of him in the hospital stating: “Thank you for all your messages! All good here.”
While Parkinson isn’t sure about a timetable for Mullin’s recovery, he made it clear that the striker will at least miss the season opener at home against MK Dons on Aug. 5.
Mullin scored 47 goals during the 2022-23 campaign.
“I don’t know (the timeline), I’ve only just got the news in the second half,” Parkinson said. “But I think when you’ve got a punctured lung and you’ve got 10 days to get fit, you’re saying no. We all stick together and we will give Paul every bit of support we can to get back as fit as possible. One thing about Mulls is he’s tough.”
