Gabriela Salgado's freak injury definitely affected the team, says Banyana coach Ellis

Banyana Banyana coach Dr Desiree Ellis feels the freak injury to midfielder Gabriela Salgado suffered severely affected her players during the heartbreaking last-minute 2-1 defeat to Nigeria in the Wafcon semi-final in Morocco on Tuesday night.

The defending champions were left in despair after Salgado challenged for a ball in the air, but was caught by the Nigerian defender as she landed with her leg stuck in the turf in the 84th minute of the closely-contested semi-final. 

Salgado’s cries of agony had a visible effect on the Banyana players, with some falling to the floor, and coach Ellis in tears on the touchline. 

Nigeria’s US-based midfielder Michelle Alozie would go on to score the winner for the Super Falcons in stoppage time.

“From the players’ reactions, it was definitely bad. But I haven’t seen the medical report yet,” Ellis said after the game.

“It looked really bad because we had to calm them [players] down and help them refocus, which was very difficult.

“What impacted us was the injury, as you could see how emotional the players were. I knew it was serious because I could see them running away after seeing it. I think that affected them in the last minutes, and they didn’t recover. Unfortunately, it’s part of the game.”

The Nigerian players were equally shocked by Salgado’s injury with Nigeria captain and Player of the Match Rasheedat Ajibade expressing her sadness.

"Injury is one of the biggest challenges for any athlete, any injury can happen, but to see a broken shin on the field, knowing it can happen to me, my teammates as well, was very sad,"Ajibade told ESPN after the game.

"We express the same emotion [as them], and we're very sad for them. We'll follow up with the player and see how she's recovering.

"We wish her the very best and hope she comes back stronger, we wish her the very best. We're honestly very broken and depressed."

Safa chief medical officer Dr Ngwenya will provide an update on Salgado’s injury later on Wednesday. 

Banyana will face Ghana in Friday’s bronze medal match.

"There's not much more we can do," Ellis said. "We have a recovery day, then two days, if we didn't have a reason [to care] before, now we have a reason to play, for Gabby.

"[We want] to make sure she gets a medal, so that she can go home with a medal."