Back when we still had football, Danny Drinkwater was trying his hardest not to ever play it again.
The Chelsea loanee, whose career has taken a sharp turn from Premier League title-winning midfielder towards mockery and irrelevance since joining the club over two years ago, headbutted an Aston Villa teammate in a training ground altercation earlier this week. The incident led to (not unreasonable) suggestions that Villa could cancel his loan and send him back to Chelsea.
As it turns out, the 30-year-old will get off with much lighter punishment. According to the Mirror — Villa have treated this as an internal matter, as per standard protocol, and head coach Dean Smith wasn’t willing to discuss any details — Drinkwater has been handed only a two-week fine (won’t get paid for two weeks) and will remain at relegation-threatened Villa for the time being. Whether he gets to complete the season will now depend mostly on external forces instead (i.e. coronavirus).
Perhaps when the league resumes sometime (hopefully) in April, Drinkwater can figure out how to resume his once solid football-playing career as well.