Manchester City defender Kyle Walker has received a three-match ban by UEFA following his challenge branded as an "assault" on Andre Silva of RB Leipzig.
On Friday, January 28, 2022, UEFA made an official announcement stating that the Manchester City defender would miss three UEFA Club-related competitions following his red card and poor challenge that was branded an "assault" in the Champions League group stage fixture on December 2021.
Although the Manchester City defender had received a red card six minutes into the end of the club's 2-1 defeat on matchday six of their Champions League campaign, UEFA had revisited the issue and decided that extra punishment was required for the poor challenge that could have been worse for Andre Silva, who had been on the receiving end of the tackle.
When Kyle Walker was asked about the case of the challenge in a recent interview, he apologized and called it a bad judgment on his part as a professional player. He said:
"My red card against Leipzig was a very bad judgment, a stupid error that a 31-year-old shouldn't be making with the amount of games that I've played."
Walker added,
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"But I'm human, I make mistakes, I'm learning from that, and I'm going to bounce back.
This signifies that Kyle Walker would miss both legs of Manchester City's round of 16 fixtures against the Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon, and if they manage to progress to the next stage, which is the quarter-finals, he would miss the first leg of that fixture. Speculations on whether Manchester City would appeal the decision of UEFA in regards to this are still ongoing.
