IBRAHIMA SONKO fears being attacked at Chelsea by the maniacs who have threatened to kill him. Reading centre-back Sonko visits Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day for the first time since his horror October clash with Carlo Cudicini.
And he is petrified someone could get on the pitch and fulfil one of the many death threats he received after the collision which put the Italian keeper in hospital. Sonko, 25, said: “That incident has gone away. But now the next game is coming up.
“I’ve been scared. You have to take the letters seriously. Some people are nasty and capable of stupid things when it comes to revenge.” Reading midfielder Stephen Hunt also received threats of revenge by post from so-called Blues fans, after accidentally leaving Petr Cech with a depressed fracture of the skull in an earlier incident.
Sonko added: “Me and Stephen probably got letters from the same people.” Both Senegalese star Sonko and Hunt were cleared by the FA of any blame for the two incidents. Yet that did not stop Chelsea chief Jose Mourinho from launching a bitter attack on Sonko, accusing Hunt of deliberately trying to maim Cech and blasting the Berkshire Ambulance Service over their conduct.
Reading boss Steve Coppell has no intention of leaving either player out of the fixture but admits Hunt could take a year to get over the ordeal.
Coppell declared: “It is not just another game, that is obvious. “Stephen is going to get a rough reception but that happens in football when players go back to certain grounds or come up against teams they have upset.
“I have no plans to leave him out, though it will be a difficult situation. He just has to deal with it. “It may never be totally forgotten. But I hope, in time, we can put it on the back shelf. “He has handled himself well, yet it is clearly still affecting him.
Coppell also admits he has given up hope of Mourinho ever saying sorry for his outburst — despite the Chelsea manager’s apology this week to Everton striker Andy Johnson.
Mourinho backtracked after tagging AJ a diver. But Coppell stated: “I saw he said sorry to Andy Johnson, yet I am not expecting any apology from Jose.
“He has his opinion on what happened that day with Stephen and he is isn’t going to change that. But we have ours. Our behaviour on the pitch shows any conclusions against us are wrong.”