Olympiakos have reacted with anger at the treatment of their defender Avraam Papadopoulos by the Greek national team.
Greeks anger over treatment
Olympiakos have reacted with anger at the treatment of their defender Avraam Papadopoulos by the Greek national team.
Papadopoulos is set to undergo surgery on a damaged cruciate ligament in his left knee, which he picked up in Greece's 1-1 draw with Poland.
The defender was substituted after 16 minutes of the Euro 2012 opener, but the club do not feel that he was dealt with correctly.
"Olympiakos declares that it will not tolerate in the future its players being placed at risk because of negligence or incompetence of those responsible. Once more it was shown that the medical staff of the national team is dangerous for the national players," Olympiakos said in a statement.
The statement further said that "further to the criminal negligence, to allow Avraam Paadopoulos to continue playing despite his injury, leading to a worsening of his condition, there are a series of other mistakes which have cost not only the national team but the club teams as well."
Greek team physician Haris Christopoulos insisted that "I believe that the injury of Avraam Papadopoulos did not deteriorate as he continued to play.
"No further complications were caused until his replacement."
Greece coach Fernando Santos also backed up Christopoulos' decision saying at a press conference that "I respect and trust completely the medical staff."
Greek federation president Sophocles Pilavios said: "I have no comment, we are here for the national team, we have a match on Tuesday and must concentrate on that."
Olympiakos' communications director Kostas Karapapas said: "At Olympiakos we are not concerned about compensation. We are concerned about people. Our people only.
"Above all we place importance on their health. Let's put aside the talk of compensation and look to correct what it not well with the medical staff of the national team."
He said a similar case had happened with midfielder Vasilis Torosidis last year when "instead of to hospital they sent him on holiday."
