Coventry star Milan van Ewijk speaks out after club are forced to delete post of his salute celebration
Milan van Ewijk has stressed that he meant no offence after a picture of his celebration in Coventry’s 2-1 win over Millwall had to be deleted from the club’s official Instagram page.
Romain Esse broke the deadlock to give Millwall a 12th-minute lead at the Coventry Building Society Arena before a quickfire double from Haji Wright in the second half secured all three points for the hosts.
The result moved Coventry up to sixth in the Championship table – with the competition for playoff spots hotting up in England’s second tier – but the Sky Blues were the subject of some unwanted attention in the aftermath of their victory.
Shortly after the game, a photograph of defender Milan van Ewijk was uploaded to Coventry’s Instagram page which appeared to showed the Dutchman performing a salute while gesturing a moustache with his finger.
Many of the replies alluded to the sinister connotations attached to the image and Van Ewijk came forward to clear up the picture with a comment of his own, confirming he had simply got two celebrations ‘mixed up’.
‘I got two celebrations mixed.. please don’t see this as offensive,’ the former Heerenveen full-back replied to the post, which was later taken down.
After another post was shared in its place, Van Ewijk replied: ‘Yeah, that’s a better pic.’
Speaking to the media ahead of Sunday’s clash, Coventry’s goalscorer Wright credited Van Ewijk for helping him settle in and said the full-back was ‘big on celebrating’.
‘He’s a fun guy to be around. A lot of jokes and a lot of fun,’ the United States striker told reporters.
‘He’s a good player as well so he does make it easier for us.’
Wright added: ‘It would be great if he could celebrate a goal every now and then [laughs] but yeah, he’s big on celebrating.’
Van Ewijk joined Coventry from Eredivisie outfit Heerenveen last summer for a fee of around £3.5million and has gone on to make 29 appearances for the club this term, scoring twice in the Championship.
The 23-year-old right-back is expected to continue his run in the side on Wednesday night, when Coventry travel to Home Park to face 15th-placed Plymouth Argyle.
