Steve Bruce: Hamza Choudhury could have ended Matt Ritchie's career | OneFootball

Steve Bruce has made a blunt claim that Hamza Choudhury was close to ending Matt Ritchie’s career with a challenge at the end of the first half.

Choudhury was only given a yellow card but Brendan Rodgers made the decision to sub him off at half-time for Leicester new boy Dennis Praet.

Ritchie had to be taken off after the play and is now out until October. In his pre-match press conference, the Newcastle boss warned that the 21-year-old could develop a bad reputation if he’s not careful.

“He went over the ball, which makes it so dangerous,” said Bruce.

“If Matty hadn’t seen it coming and taken his leg away he could have been in serious trouble. He could have been out for eight months, it could have been career-ending.

“If his leg had been planted on the floor, he was in serious trouble. Instead, he rode it a little but it was a horror challenge.

“As it is Matty’s in a mess, there’s ankle ligament damage, bone bruising, cuts, three lots of stitches.

“Let’s hope the young lad Choudhury learns from it because he’s a very good player – but you can get a reputation. He has to be careful.

“I think Brendan knew it was a poor, poor challenge. I love to see people tackle but it was a bad challenge that hurts people.

“It could have been much, much worse. I honestly thought it might have been six months out when I saw Matt after the game.”

Newcastle host Watford on Saturday in a match between the bottom two sides in the Premier League.