Mario Lemina has been stripped of the Wolves captaincy.
Lemina, 31, was involved in a post-match clash with West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen after Wolves’ 2-1 defeat at the London Stadium on Monday and then proceeded to push his own team-mates as they tried to calm in down and then square up to Wolves assistant coach Shaun Derry.
Nelson Semedo replaces him as Wolves skipper, with O’Neil confirming the news in his press conference on Friday and saying the incident against West Ham led to a conversation around the captaincy.
“Mario’s fine,” said O’Neil. “It was a conversation, it was nothing more than that. The most important thing to come out of it is that we need to get the best out of everybody.
“Of course, the other night sparked the conversation, but it was an important conversation that had to be had.
“Myself and Mario have a good understanding now of how we move forward and what it looks like. We dealt with it earlier in the week, so the focus since that moment has been firmly on Ipswich.
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Wolves boss Gary O’Neil explains the decision to replace Mario Lemina as club captain.
“These things, sometimes they can be tough to deal with and sometimes you can come out of them in a good spot, and I feel like we have.
“I have a lot of respect for Mario and what he’s still going to be able to do for us. When we get the best out of him on the pitch, his level is so high that he’s still going to play a big part for us.
“He’ll still be around that group of senior players that lead the team, but at this moment we feel it’s best for Nelson to lead the group.”
Lemina’s apology: We’re going to fight to overcome this situation
The day after the game, Lemina took to social media to apologise for his actions. He wrote:
“I write this message with great hindsight and I really want to apologise to all the people who love this club and love football.
“I never wanted this to happen on the ground. I have always been a fair player, even in defeat.
“If something is said, make sure the truth comes out.
“I shook this player’s hand, like I always do and I was grabbed by the shirt and thrown to the ground. I just reacted to a situation that I didn’t cause at all.
“I love my team, the staff, and all the people who make up this club.
“We all gonna fight harder to overcome this situation. Shaun [Derry] you already know. We gonna fight again and again.”
How we reported Lemina’s shocking post-match clashes
Mario Lemina was dragged away at full time following a scuffle
Sky Sports‘ Peter Smith at the London Stadium:
“Wolves captain Mario Lemina is furious at full-time. There is a scuffle between the two sets of players but his frustrations continue, even pushing team-mate Toti and one of the Wolves coaching staff.
“Other team-mates try to calm him down but eventually he is escorted off the pitch while the rest of the Wolves players applaud the away end.
“The West Ham supporters are enjoying it with ironic cheers!”
