Manchester United midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has been issued a three-match suspension after accepting an FA violent conduct charge following an altercation with West Ham defender Winston Reid in last weekend’s 0-0 draw at Old Trafford.
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An FA statement confirmed, “Bastian Schweinsteiger will serve a three-match suspension with immediate effect after he accepted an FA charge for violent conduct which was not seen by the match officials but caught on video”.
The ban means that the midfielder, who signed for Manchester United from Bayern Munich last summer, will miss matches against AFC Bournemouth, Norwich and Stoke City though he will be back just in time to face Chelsea on December 28. “I’m sure that Manchester United are still going to get a lot of joy out of Schweinsteiger”. “I think that I can do it with other players better”, said the boss after the Champions League exit at the hands of Wolfsburg.
The 31-year-old’s absence will come as a further blow to United’s injury-hit squad, even though manager Louis van Gaal suggested Schweinsteiger under-performed in the 3-2 defeat at Wolfsburg, and that is why he was substituted.
Schweinsteiger, though, was defended on Thursday by his global manager Joachim Low, who called for Germany’s captain to be given time to adapt to English football.
“We at the German Football Association know what we are getting with Bastian”, he said. “He is still a world-class player and undisputed as our captain”, he told Bild.
“Chris Smalling may block him off. He’s seen two players coming together and what he’s done is chose to calm it down, take the heat out of it, because it was a free-kick”.
It did look as though he was set to appeal the ban, though the German global has now accepted the punishment. No, I want him to play.
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Reid later claimed that the Germany star should have been sent off, saying: ‘It was a red card.
