Kyle Walker has said his “heart kicked in” when he attempted to persuade referee Matteo Marchetti to avoid showing Dele Alli a red card on his Como Debut, but admitted he would not have done the same for any other opponent.
Dele’s first professional football match in 748 days lasted just nine minutes as he was shown a straight red card for a foul on Ruben Loftus-Cheek, shortly after coming off the bench to make his Como debut.
He was initially shown a yellow card but that was upgraded to red after a VAR check during stoppage time of Como’s 2-1 defeat at Walker’s AC Milan.
The pair were teammates at Tottenham Hotspur and England and Walker said his “personal relationship” prompted him to attempt to stop the red card being shown.
“I think my heart kicked in. Anyone else, I would have just let him get sent off, especially a man down at the San Siro,” the right-back said on his self-titled BBC podcast. “I know what he’s tried to do. We’ve all done it where you just clip the ankles of someone and they don’t get the counterattack.
“But maybe where he’s not played for a couple of years and is out of the rhythm of the game and everything like that, he’s caught Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] a little bit too high, and that was it.
“Of course, I think in footballing terms, we need 10 men. We want the 10 men, AC Milan want the 10 men. But [I appealed] for the personal relationship that I have with Dele, for the number of years that I’ve known Dele, for what he’s been through.”
Dele joined Como on an 18-month deal in January, with an option to extend for an additional year. The match against Milan on March 15 was his first since in more than two years. His previous appearance came for Turkish club Besiktas in February 2023.
The midfielder was a member of the England team that reached the World Cup semifinals in 2018 and was a key player for Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs side that reached the Champions League final in 2019.
However, his career has derailed in recent years. He spent six weeks in rehab in the United States in 2023 in a bid to deal with mental-health problems stemming from a traumatic childhood and becoming addicted to sleeping pills.
Dele did not make a single appearance for Everton last season before contract expired in June 2024.
The 28-year-old began training with Como at the end of last year and impressed head coach Cesc Fàbregas enough to earn himself a contract at the club.
“I know how hard he has worked, especially off the field, and then to get his chance now at Como, it’s fantastic,” Walker said. “I think it’s a good club, good league for him to try to regenerate and revive his career.”
Information from The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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