256 Roy Keane Part 1 (2/2)

Wood was on the sidelines, receiving treatment to stop the bleeding. Fleming had to first check whether his nose was broken or not, because that kind of impact was likely to lead to a fracture of the bridge of his nose. It would not be a simple matter of stuffing two balls of tissue paper up his nose.

He touched it and found that it was normal. He was relieved, and gave Wood the tissue paper.

”Stuff them in.”

Wood listened and stuffed them in, but immediately took them back out.

”I can't breathe,” Wood said to the perplexed Fleming.

”Breathe through your mouth...”

Wood shook his head, and then raised his head up high. He looked up at the sky and did not say anything. He then sucked in through his nose with all his strength; occasionally his throat would rattle, and something would be gulped down.

Fleming did not know what Wood was doing; soon the lad lowered his head again and said, ”I'm ok.”

”You're ok? It stopped?” Fleming was a little surprised. ”What did you just swallow?”

”Blood,” Wood answered truthfully.

Fleming grimaced. ”You swallowed the blood from your nose?”

Wood nodded.

”Oh my god...” Fleming had no idea what the expression on his face looked like.

Wood ignored him and turned back to the field, but was stopped by Fleming. ”Where are you going? You can't go back now without the permission of the referee. Have you forgotten? You've got to back to the locker room and change your jersey.”

Wood looked down at the red bloodstains on his jersey, which did not look good at all.

So he ran past Manchester United's substitutes' bench, into the players' corridor, and back into the locker room to change his jersey.

After he watched Wood disappear into the corridor, Fleming walked towards the Forest team's technical area. Twain asked him, ”What's the situation?”

Fleming grinned. ”You saw him run. Do you still think there's a problem?”

”Erm...” Twain also felt he asked a rather silly question.

”What the hell did he eat growing up?” Fleming said to himself, frowning.

”What's the matter?”

”I gave him tissue paper to stuff his nose to stop the bleeding, and he complained that he couldn't breathe. Then he tilted his head back and swallowed all the blood from his nose...” Fleming grimaced.

When he heard what Fleming had said, Twain smiled. ”Just get used to it, Gary.”

When Wood had returned to the sidelines from the locker room, Twain stopped him. ”How does it feel, George?”

Wood did not understand what he was asking. ”How does what feel?”

”The feeling of shooting into the goal.”

”I... can't say.” Wood shook his head.

”Well... Slow down, don't rush. Don't forget to defend, either.” Twain patted Wood on the shoulder and said nothing else.

The fourth official came over to check Wood's nose and make sure he had no bloodstains on his face, his neck, or his new jersey. Only then was he allowed to stand on the sidelines and wait for the referee's call.

The referee saw that Wood had already changed into his new jersey. He waved to him as he ran towards the Forest team's midfield, and Wood ran up.

※※※

Because George Wood had gone back to the locker room to change his clothes, the Forest team had had about five minutes during which they had one player less than Manchester United.

That had been a great opportunity for Manchester United to break out of the deadlock from earlier, because the Forest team was not short a striker, but a vital defensive midfielder. However, Twain's earlier adjustment had made the Forest team completely abandon their offense for those five minutes. They did not give up of their own accord, but rather because of Manchester United's fierce attack. Even if they had wanted to counterattack, they were essentially powerless.

Compared to Ryan Giggs on Manchester's left flank, Cristiano Ronaldo on the right flank was much more active. Franck Ribéry, who had consistently performed outstandingly for the last two months, was so quashed by Ronaldo that he could not attack at all.

Fortunately, Albertini was experienced, and quickly organized the Forest team's midfield defense. Apart from one time whereby Piqué did not shoot far to lift an attack and Rooney missed the goal after seizing the opportunity of not being marked by anyone, there were no other thrilling moments.

As a result, when Wood was back on the field, the score on the big screen scoreboard had not changed. It was still 0:0.

Nottingham Forest was far more tenacious than Manchester United had anticipated.