Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has accused Nottingham Forest of targeting Bruno Fernandes in his side's FA Cup win at the City Ground and branded criticism of his captain "pathetic".
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The Portugal midfielder overcame a "serious injury" to play his part in United's 1-0 victory at Forest, setting up Casemiro's 89th-minute winner with a well-delivered free-kick.
He was on the receiving end of plenty of robust challenges throughout the 90 minutes while also being the butt of social media jokes after Saturday's loss against Fulham.
Fulham's official TikTok account poked fun at United's skipper for appearing to feign injury and it got Ten Hag's back up.
"I don't want to go into that because you saw that Forest was targeting him, so I don't tell what he has but it was a serious injury," the United coach said when asked about Fernandes.
"There were many fouls on him. Maybe I am a little bit too tough but when he has the ball they were really tight on him.
"Then I see that serious media criticise him and social media is pathetic.
"He has a serious injury but he continued to play on Saturday, and today he also fought to be part of the game. He has a very high pain threshold.
"Last year he did also something similar against Spurs and in the semi-final. It shows his leadership."
This was far from a classic performance by United, who face neighbours Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday, but they got the job done and maintained their hopes of finishing the season with a trophy.
That is not going to be easy, though - they were handed a quarter-final draw against EPL leaders Liverpool at Old Trafford in mid-March.
"There are many good teams in the Premier League, Liverpool at this moment is top but it is a great challenge and we are really looking forward," Ten Hag said.
"We like the challenges, it is a great game for us to play."
Extra time was looming when Casemiro glanced Fernandes's delivery past Matt Turner to send United's travelling contingent wild.
The goal survived a lengthy VAR check as Raphael Varane, who was in an offside possession, appeared to block a couple of Forest players, but he was ruled not to be interfering in play.
Such has been Forest's frustration at refereeing decisions in recent weeks, they have appointed former top-flight referee Mark Clattenburg to act as a conduit to the relevant authorities.
"Speaking with the players they say it is a block and a possible offside. They checked it," Wolves boss Nuno Esperito Santo said.
"We have had so many issues in this period with VAR and referees that we try to forget about it and move forward."
Australian Associated Press
