DAZN forced to apologise after Chelsea icon's angry rant at 'stupid' Nicolas Jackson

Jon Obi Mikel laid into "stupid" Nicolas Jackson after his FIFA Club World Cup red card - leaving DAZN forced to apologise.

Striker Jackson saw red and was sent off - on his 24th birthday - as Chelsea wilted in Philadelphia and fell to a 3-1 defeat against Brazilian side Flamengo. Jackson, who had been dumped to the bench with £30m new boy Liam Delap handed his first start, made a nightmare four-minute cameo appearance.

The Senegal international stepped on the bench seconds after Flamengo had equalised, having fallen behind to Pedro Neto's first-half opener. And just three minutes later, Enzo Maresca's men were behind, veteran defender Danilo poking home to hand former Blues defender Filipe Luis' side the lead.

Shortly after, Jackson left Chelsea down to 10 men with an awful, high, studs up challenge into the shin of Flamengo's Lucas. It was a certain red card, and one which Maresca had little to say about post-match: “It was a red card, so nothing else to say. They deserved to win.”

It earns Jackson an automatic one-match ban, but FIFA could choose to upgrade it upon review.

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But while Maresca had little to say, Mikel took aim. Speaking on DAZN, for whom he is working as a pundit, the Nigerian declared: "Unbelievable. Stupid, stupid, stupid mistake.

"I don’t know what was going through his head. Your team needs you and he does that!

"He did that at Newcastle in an important game. He got a red card. And now he's done this again. You can't keep making mistakes like this."

Asked whether Jackson could have been frustrated at losing his place to Delap, Mikel responded: "I don’t care what his frustration is (Delap starting). This is a massive football club and it's about competition.

"If you’re angry or p****d off, then you have to embrace it. We need competition."

DAZN presenter Kelly Somers apologised for the choice of language from Mikel. But going back to the incident later on, Mikel added: "Jackson needs to have a word with himself, where do you want to go with your Chelsea career?"

Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella said post-game: “He’s very sad. He tried to win the ball, had the bad luck that he kicked his leg and that’s it. He’s a young player with a lot of quality but maybe needs to improve a little bit in these things.

“But he has to learn. After the manager spoke, he said sorry, he didn’t do it on purpose. He’s a very important player for us, we will miss him in the next game but this is football.”

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