Saints' Wanyama apologizes for red-card challenge

Southampton midfielder Victor Wanyama issued an apology to Saints fans following his red-card ejection in a 1-0 loss to Norwich City on Saturday.

Wanyama picked up a yellow card in the first half for a bad foul in midfield but compounded his disciplinary issues in the second half with another yellow card for a rough tackle on Alexander Tettey.

The referee issued a red card and, three minutes later, Tettey scored the only goal of the game.

"I would just like to apologize to the manager, fans, and everyone at the club for my red card yesterday," Wanyama said Sunday. "It was reckless and irresponsible and I should have used my experience to have not let it happen, especially when I was on a yellow card.

"I now just want to focus on getting back on the pitch and helping the team as much as I can."

Wanyama will now miss the Saints' next Premier League fixture against Watford, but first and foremost, he'll be hoping to win back the faith and goodwill of his manager, Ronald Koeman.

The Dutch tactician was already in a mood and dropped star player Sadio Mane from the starting lineup as punishment for missing a team meeting. Koeman was visibly upset with Wanyama's red card after the match.

"I'm angry about the second yellow card from Victor because a player with his experience needs to know if you already have a yellow in a game, that you cannot do that tackle in that position on the pitch," Koeman told reporters after the match.

"Maybe he's doing too much to resolve some problems that happened on the pitch but he has to know he can't take that risk to do that tackle."