Nelson Oliveira: Tyrone Mings 'could have avoided' facial contact in Reading v Aston Villa game
Last updated on .From the section Reading
Reading's Nelson Oliveira feels Aston Villa's Tyrone Mings could have avoided contact that broke his nose and says he is "lucky he is not blind".
Mings will face no retrospective action despite landing on Oliveira's face during Saturday's game.
The incident in the second half was seen by match officials at the time.
"I won't say he did it on purpose," Oliveira said. "But what makes me angry and have bad feelings is it's something that could've been avoided."
Oliveira, on loan at Reading from Norwich City, needed surgery on four breaks to his nose as well as stitches to five cuts to his face. He will miss Reading's match at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.
"It's not for me to judge if it happened on purpose," the 27-year-old told BBC Radio Berkshire. "Someone else has to do that.
"The only thing I can 100% say, and it's just my opinion, he could have avoided doing it.
"The best people to judge that are players as they know how people fall to the ground in challenges and move around the pitch in games.
"Everything happened so fast. My first reaction when I felt the impact was it was his knee. To stamp on someone's face is a very rare thing to happen in football.
"I'm very lucky it was just my nose that was broken. I could have been blinded and unable to play again or broken more bones in my face and jaw."
Mings, who is on loan from Bournemouth, texted Oliveira after the game to apologise - a message the Portuguese forward said he received before having seen any footage of the incident.
Aston Villa boss Dean Smith defended his player, saying Mings was "upset" when he learned of the extent of Oliveira's injuries.
"It was totally accidental," Smith told BBC WM 95.6. "I had no view of it at the time as I didn't see a foul.
"I don't think anyone in the stadium thought there was a foul, the closest person to the incident other than the two players was the referee, who waved play on and the fans didn't appeal.
"All of a sudden, everyone looks at a picture of it on social media and makes an assumption. There's been lots of words about a stamp.
"There was no stamp. It was a coming together of two players and what happens next is accidental.
"The most important thing people should've been asking was 'is Nelson ok?' Thankfully, he is and that's the important thing."
