Andre Gomes suffers serious injury as Everton rescue point in draw with Spurs

Everything was overshadowed by what happened to Andre Gomes. Everything felt less important, as both under pressure managers acknowledged, because of the horrific damage suffered by the Everton midfielder whose season is over.

Gomes landed terribly after his right ankle went one way and his right leg twisted the other following a challenge by Son Heung-min that saw the Tottenham forward sent off. The ankle was left in such an unnatural angle and at fully 90 degrees to Gomes’ leg.

Goodison Park swirled with emotion. There were tears on the pitch and not least from Son who caught Gomes, with referee Martin Atkinson showing him a yellow card and then changing it to a red, presumably once the severity of the injury hit him. The VAR, Anthony Taylor, did not intervene with the sending off, later justified by the Premier League because Son had “endangered the safety of a player” but, in truth, and despite the damage caused, it did not appear the right decision. It was an accident. There was no malice. But it remains to be seen whether Spurs appeal against the three-match ban.

Son would not have been able to carry on anyway. He looked broken and in a state of shock by what had happened. The Korean was utterly distraught as he was led away by Tottenham’s first team coach Miguel D’Agostino and as other players held their faces, turned away in horror and also broke down in tears including Serge Aurier who Gomes had stumbled into.

It left Spurs to hold on for the 10 minutes of normal time and the 12 minutes of added time – with two lengthy VAR checks adding to the extra minutes – but they could not do so as substitute Cenk Tosun scored a header in the 97th minute to cancel out Dele Alli’s goal. Both teams needed to win. But, in the end, it was a game and an outcome that suddenly became less relevant beyond the wait for news on Gomes who was immediately taken to hospital.

“He can’t even pick his head up. It’s sad to see,” Alli said of Son with Everton club captain Seamus Coleman also going to the Spurs dressing room to try and console his opponent and manager Marco Silva rightly absolving him of any blame.