Gallagher says sorry for his 'rash' first-half red card against Leicester

Conor Gallagher said sorry to his Chelsea team-mates, staff and fans after his first-half red card on Saturday.

The England midfielder was shown two yellow cards in the first 28 minutes of the Premier League encounter against Leicester City at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues were reduced to 10 men with the game still goalless, but Thomas Tuchel’s side still went on to win the match.

Raheem Sterling scored a brace in a 2-1 victory over the Foxes.

However, Gallagher felt that he let his side down, and issued an apology on social media.

‘Proud of the team for digging deep today and winning with 10 men,’ he wrote on Instagram.

‘Personally, I want to apologise to my teammates, staff and the fans. I take full responsibility for the rash decision leaving them with a huge challenge for the rest of the game. Thankfully, they came through.’

Referee Paul Tierney gave Gallagher his marching orders after stopping Harvey Barnes from counter-attacking.

Six minutes earlier, Gallagher had gone into the book for hauling down Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

Tuchel, who watched from the stands as he was serving a one-match ban following a bust-up with Tottenham boss Antonio Conte, was far from impressed with his decision making.

He said: ‘You can’t make the [second] challenge if you have a yellow card after 20 or 25 minutes. The challenge was a clear yellow card and gave us a huge disadvantage.

‘There was no reason to make this decision. He is responsible for what he did and of course he knows it was a huge mistake.’