Premier League strugglers strip midfielder of captaincy after he started huge brawl and shoved team-mate and coach
WOLVES ace Mario Lemina has been stripped of the captain’s armband after brawling with West Ham star Jarrod Bowen.
Manager Gary O’Neil confirmed Lemina, 31, has been replaced by Nelson Semedo, who will don the armband starting on Saturday against Ipswich Town at Molineux.
The midfielder remains part of the squad and will maintain a leading role as a senior player.
O’Neil said: “We have a large amount of respect for each other but after the discussions we decided to move the captaincy to Nelson.
“So Nelson will captain the group from now on, but discussions were good.
“These things sometimes they can be tough to deal with and sometimes you can come out of them in a really good spot and I feel like we have.
“I have a lot of respect for Mario and what he’s still going to be able to do for us as well as what he’s done for us before.
“When we get the best out of him on the pitch, his level is so high that he’s still going to play a very big part for us which he’s still extremely keen to do.
“And he’ll still be around that group of senior players that will lead the team but at this moment we feel it’s best for Nelson to lead the group.”
Lemina was demoted after Wolves’ tense 2-1 Premier League loss to fellow strugglers West Ham on Monday at the London Stadium.
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The gloves came off at full-time after Lemina appeared to refuse to shake the hand of his Hammers counterpart Bowen.
That caused both captains to square up to each other and get involved in a grappling contest.
The England international appeared to say “Shake my hand” several times, before shoving his counterpart back and grabbing him by the scruff of the neck.
Lemina in turn snatched onto Bowen’s shirt and flipped the winger onto the grass.
Players from both sides rushed in and Bowen, as well as the Gabon international, were subsequently booked by referee John Brooks after VAR had checked for violent conduct.
An enraged Lemina even pushed his own team-mate Toti Gomes and Wolves coach Shaun Derry.
Toti and Derry tried to calm the defensive midfielder down as was West Ham ace Jean-Clair Todibo, who played with him at Nice.
Wolves enter a crucial period with fixtures against fellow strugglers Ipswich and Leicester in their next two games.
O’Neill is under huge pressure to deliver results.
SunSport understands Wolves‘ leadership team continue to back their beleaguered boss and do not blame him totally for their poor run of results which has seen them win just twice in 15 league games.
But defeats in the coming days could lead to a dramatic twist in the situation.