No bust-up with Kieran Richardson - Steve Bruce

Feb 5 2010 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

STEVE Bruce insists Kieran Richardson still has a future at Sunderland after dismissing claims he clashed with the midfielder at half-time during the insipid defeat at Everton.

Weekend reports had suggested the pair were involved in a heated exchange after Richardson was substituted on 24 minutes during the 2-0 reverse at Goodison Park.

Bruce admits he fell out “with a few players” during the interval of the Merseyside horror show but said Richardson – who could be missing until mid-February with what the Sunderland boss branded a “nasty” calf injury – was not involved.

The flames were fanned by Richardson’s absence from the barren stalemate with Stoke City on Monday, but Bruce says the former Manchester United man will be back in the reckoning as soon as he recovers.

He said: “I have seen the Kieran Richardson stories and they are totally wrong.

“I might have had a bust-up with a few of them in that dressing room, but Kieran was not involved.

“I fell out with a few players, and rightly so given the standard of the first-half performance.

“However, the suggestion Kieran was singled out or anything like that is wrong.

“Let’s put one other thing right too. Kieran picked up a haematoma in his calf against Everton and it is a really nasty problem.

“That was the reason why he came off, and that is the reason why he has not been involved since. It has nothing to do with any supposed bust-up.”

Reports of dressing-room discontent are the last thing Bruce needs as he tries to pull Sunderland out of their tailspin against Wigan this weekend.

While acknowledging the paucity of their play against Stoke, the defiant Black Cats boss is confident of a crucial victory at the Stadium of Light this weekend.