Footage has revealed one of Ireland’s star players appearing to refuse to shake the hand of Australia’s Caitlin Foord before the Matildas’ triumphant opening World Cup game.
In what is being interpreted as an epic on-pitch spat, social media footage from Thursday showed the two team’s players lining up to shake hands, fist bump and high five before the match kicked off.
But Littlejohn seems to pull her hand away as Foord was going in for a handshake.
The Irish midfielder then shook the next Matilda player’s hand.
And that was just the start of the controversy.
After the game, Ireland’s Ruesha Littlejohn and Foord seemed to confront each other.
Australia prevailed 1-0 over Ireland and as the celebrations began Littlejohn appeared to approach Foord on the pitch. However it looked as if teammates held her back.
Foord hasn’t commented on the alleged snub.
Irish captain Katie McCabe also made some enemies on Thursday night at Stadium Australia where she clattered into a number of Matildas players.
McCabe, who is known for her aggressive play for Arsenal in the Women’s Super League, took out Hayley Raso with a borderline reckless studs-up challenge that had Australian fans livid.
McCabe was the most booked player in the Super League this season gone, with an equal-top seven yellow cards, and even has a Twitter account dedicated to her referee interactions called “Did Katie McCabe get a yellow card today?”
Former England and Manchester City goalkeeper Karen Bardsley called it petulant.
“There’s an element of petulance here from Katie McCabe,” Bardsley said on the BBC.
“These challenges from her have just started to add up now.
“It is the referee‘s responsibility to manage those situations, because if you don’t nip it in the bud then it will just keep escalating.
“We certainly don‘t want to see anyone either stretchered off or sent off.”
However, McCabe’s antics weren’t hated by everyone, with English presenter Laura Woods loving it.
“At one point she‘d gone down, she had her fingers strapped up, nothing is going to stop her, is it?” former talkSPORT Breakfast host Woods told ITV at half time.
