The Martin Samuel debate: should Liverpool and Everton share - and who should pay?

Under normal circumstances, when a player is seriously injured during a match, colleagues of the assailant mount a spirited defence. It was out of character, they say. No harm was intended. He is not that type of guy. It is hard to make that case for Chris Morgan, of Sheffield United.

Morgan left Iain Hume, of Barnsley, with massive head injuries and fighting for his life and the trouble is, he is exactly that type of guy. Not one who aspires to this outcome, but one who is prepared to risk it. Anybody who lands an elbow on the head of an opponent does and Morgan appeared to know exactly what he was doing when he struck Hume during the Coca-Cola Championship match at Oakwell on November 8.

He was not jumping for the ball, so there is no question of using his arms for propulsion or to attain height, and his glance sideways shows that he was very much aware of Hume’s position, so he cannot claim to have been ignorant of the potential consequence of his action. Indeed, his feet were planted on the floor, to secure balance. Some blows to the head result from a momentary lack of control; by contrast, it was rare to see a defender so settled in his stance.

As for character, Morgan has been sent off 12 times in 11 seasons and was the player who, on December 30, 2006, bravely punched Robin van Persie, of Arsenal, in the ribs on his blind side and, after video evidence was used, was banned for three matches. As this was a day when Arsenal lost to a battling side from the North, commentators preferred to concentrate on the flaws in Arsène Wenger’s team rather than some of the methods employed by Sheffield United. Indeed, the refusal of Arsenal’s players to shake hands at the end gained more publicity than Morgan’s behaviour. What softies, eh? Can’t even take an off-the-ball punch.

Morgan’s manager that day was Neil Warnock, now with Crystal Palace, who was one of the few to speak on his behalf after the Hume incident. As Warnock was once quoted admitting that he was not adverse to shouting to his players to break an opponent’s leg — “I must have said that a hundred times, you say things like that in the heat of the moment, you don’t mean it and my players take it with a pinch of salt” — he may wish to consider whether the example of his management played any small part in subsequent events. Don’t bet on it, though. Even so, what happens next will be fascinating because Hume is considering legal action and that is something they really do know about at Bramall Lane.

Leaving aside Hume’s personal case, if Barnsley are aware of the precedents set by the recent rulings of Lord Griffiths on behalf of Sheffield United in the Carlos Tévez affair, interesting times lay ahead. Barnsley would do well to make a note of the league position on the day Morgan elbowed Hume, for a start. One of the principles Griffiths established is that a club are not responsible for their final league position, so were Barnsley to drop below seventeenth in the Championship, they could put forward a claim stating that this was a direct result of Morgan’s action on behalf of Sheffield United.

Again, using Griffiths’s judgment for the FA tribunal, they could then attempt to play an imaginary campaign, with Hume in the team, working out how many points he would have been worth had he not been incapacitated by Morgan, before making a petition for loss of earnings.

Hume had four goals in 15 league games this season before his injury and was Barnsley’s joint leading goalscorer. The Sheffield United players suing West Ham United for compensation, including Morgan, may also provide an interesting precedent, too, if it is established that another club owed them a duty of care. That could then make Sheffield United, via Morgan, responsible for the individual misfortune of Barnsley players, even those who had not been left with an 18-inch scar from life-saving surgery.

The FA will decide this week whether Morgan’s actions require a further charge and Hume’s advisers will take advice before coming to a decision on legal proceedings. The early prognosis suggests that the striker will not play again this season, so Barnsley will have to be patient if they also want their day in court.

It would be nice to think that, from all sides, common sense will prevail; but as far as football and the law are concerned, common sense got the elbow long ago.

And another thing...

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• Graham Spiers