Head coach Gary O’Neil says Hee Chan Hwang has the full support of the Wolves group, after he reported a racist remark in Monday’s pre-season match with Como 1907.
Midway through the second half the attacker reported the incident, which led to angry reactions of his teammates, resulting in the dismissal of Daniel Podence.
Immediately following the incident, O’Neil spoke to Hwang and offered him the opportunity to abandon the match, however the South Korean was determined to continue and play out the 90 minutes.
O’Neil said: “Channy heard a racist remark which is really disappointing. I spoke to Channy about it, checked whether he wanted to take the team off or come off himself, but he was keen the team carried on and got the work they needed. It’s really disappointing that it happened, that we have to talk about it and that it impacted the game – not ideal and things like that shouldn’t be around.
“He’s really disappointed, of course, and understandably. I’m proud of the fact that he wanted to carry on and put his team first in a difficult moment for him. He knew it was a pre-season trip and he wanted the lads to work and get their minutes, even though he’d suffered something hugely offensive. Channy will be OK, he’ll get our full support and we’ll pick him up in the morning and make sure he’s OK.
“It’s a together group. Of course, there’s ways to handle that and we don’t want to leave ourselves short on the pitch, but it’s a together group. We’ve worked really hard this week, had a good week, had some great moments in the game, but it’s an unfortunate incident we have to deal with and have to discuss when, ideally, we’d be talking about the game. Of course, when an incident like that happens in a game, it’s the first thing we discuss.”
Racism or discrimination in any form is completely unacceptable and should never be left unchallenged, and Wolves will be submitting a formal complaint to UEFA regarding the incident.
