{"id":5908,"date":"2026-11-01T20:30:44","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T20:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/01\/referee-accidentally-breaks-players-leg-after-collision\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T20:30:44","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T20:30:44","slug":"referee-accidentally-breaks-players-leg-after-collision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/01\/referee-accidentally-breaks-players-leg-after-collision\/","title":{"rendered":"Referee accidentally breaks player\u2019s leg after collision"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"65\">\n<p>An East Carolina Pirates defensive back suffered a fractured leg after an unusual collision with a referee during his team\u2019s 17-9 victory over the Temple Owls in U S, according to BBC Sport on Sunday.\n<\/p>\n<p>David Coleman Jr was standing on the field alongside his teammates between plays when an official ran towards the area near the 40-yard line.\n<\/p>\n<p>However, as the referee approached the players from behind, he slipped and slid into Coleman Jr, sending the defender tumbling forward onto the turf.\n<\/p>\n<p>Coleman Jr remained on the ground for some time before two teammates helped carry him off the field to avoid putting weight on his injured leg.<\/p>\n<p>East Carolina head coach Blake Harrell later confirmed that an X-ray conducted at half-time revealed that Coleman Jr had fractured his fibula.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur thoughts and our prayers are with him. But that\u2019s just one of those things. Kind of wild it happens, I\u2019d never seen that from an official,\u201d Harrell said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Coleman Jr managed to record one tackle before leaving the game following the unfortunate incident.<\/p>\n<p>Despite losing the defensive back to injury, East Carolina held on to secure a 17-9 victory over Temple.\n<\/p>\n<p>The incident was particularly unusual, as Coleman Jr\u2019s injury resulted from an accidental collision with a match official rather than contact with an opposing player.\n                    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"13.525423728814\">\n                                                                <b><a href=\"https:\/\/punchng.com\/author\/gekugbe\">Gilbert Ekugbe<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Gilbert Ekugbe is a journalist at Punch Newspapers with over a decade of experience reporting on business and economic affairs. He covers markets, corporate developments, finance, and Nigeria\u2019s broader economic landscape. His reporting is informed by extensive newsroom experience and a strong commitment to accuracy and responsible journalism, helping readers understand complex business issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"14.852589641434\">\n<p> All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contact\">Contact: <a href=\"\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#51253934343538253e231121243f32393f367f323e3c\"> <span class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"77031f1212131e03180537070219141f19105914181a\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/span> <\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Punch Newspapers &#8211; Latest News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An East Carolina Pirates defensive back suffered a fractured leg after an unusual collision with a referee during his team\u2019s 17-9 victory over the Temple Owls in U S, according&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}