Newcastle players leave young mascot abandoned on pitch before Liverpool defeat

Newcastle United’s players left their young mascot abandoned on the pitch at Anfield before their 4-1 defeat to Liverpool on Saturday.

Footage of the incident went viral on social media on Sunday night after a supporter had filmed the two teams walking out of the tunnel and onto the pitch.

The young girl was led out of the tunnel by Kieran Trippier, who was Newcastle’s captain for the game in the absence of Bruno Guimaraes, who was missing due to an ankle injury.

But after the two teams had shaken hands, Trippier and the rest of Newcastle’s players left the girl standing alone on the pitch for over a minute while they removed their pre-match tracksuit jackets and handed them to a member of staff on the touchline.

Liverpool’s photographer then urged the girl to walk over to the Newcastle players who had ran over the touchline but she stayed alone near the centre circle.

The video ended with the young girl still stood alone in the middle of the pitch as Newcastle’s players made their final preparations before the game started.

In contrast, Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk stayed with the club’s four young mascots and was passing a ball to them inside the penalty area in front of the Kop before kick-off.

Van Dijk then led the four Liverpool mascots towards the centre circle for a photograph. The Newcastle mascot was still stood alone when Van Dijk approached before Trippier walked back over from the touchline to join her.

A father of one of the Liverpool mascots who watched the game at Anfield wrote on social media: ‘So bad. Why Trippier completely neglected her after the handshakes is unfathomable.

‘My son was a mascot last night. We can see from this video that Trippier was looking after her then just simply left her.’

Newcastle are now said to be reaching out to the family of the young girl and want to ‘put things right’ after they were initially unaware of the incident, according to The Telegraph.

Eddie Howe’s side are next in action against Manchester City in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final on Wednesday night.

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