Springboks lock Eben Etzebeth has broken his silence following his eye-gouge on Alex Mann and his subsequent ban.
Etzebeth was handed a 12-match ban after being deemed guilty of intentionally eye-gouging the Wales flanker during the latter stages of South Africa’s 73-0 victory at the Principality Stadium.
The lock pleaded guilty to eye-gouging but argued that he did so accidentally, an independent disciplinary panel disagreed, however, before handing down the suspension.
Etzebeth has been slammed by several former players and pundits, some of whom are ex-teammates, following the incident, and while he remained silent throughout the process, he has now taken to social media to explain his actions.
Eben Etzebeth’s apology
In a post on Instagram, Etzebeth included two videos of the incident and stated that he decided to break his silence in order to explain to ‘young kids who look up to the Springboks’ that eye gouging is not ‘OK’.
“Hey Everyone, I’ve been quiet, but now that my hearing is done I think I owe everyone an explanation,” the caption on his post began.
“First of all, this is not a post to show that I was not guilty, I accept guilt. I made a mistake and I’m willing to serve a suspension which I deserve.
“I don’t want young kids who look up to the Springboks to think that it’s OK to eye gouge someone, because it’s not, but unfortunately mistakes happen and I made a big one for which I’m sorry.”
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Etzebeth added that he simply wanted to answer the question of why he would ‘do such a thing?’
“It was a mistake caused by my reaction and other factors that played a role,” he continued.