Luis Suarez: Mother's Concerns About Black Players Are Unfounded

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez is still waiting for his appeal to be heard in regards to his eight-match ban for alleged racist remarks directed toward Manchester United's Patrice Evra. The ongoing drama has started to overshadow the Reds' European chase.

Darren Lewis of Mirror Football passed along some interesting quotes from the star's mother, Sandra Diaz, about the entire ordeal:

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“I'm worried now when I see him on the pitch. I know he's going to have to look after himself.

“I'm afraid now when he comes up against a black person, especially because they're going to go looking for him.

“I'm very worried about his future. He has his whole future in front of him and there's a stain on his character.”

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While it's a sticky situation to be sure, she shouldn't have any long-term fears. Nobody other than Suarez and Evra truly know what happened on the pitch but, regardless of what it was, Suarez has endured a rough patch that won't soon be forgotten.

That will probably lead to a kinder, gentler version of himself moving forward. He won't be unfairly targeted for no reason by black players in future matches just because of Evra's allegations.

Suarez certainly can't approach the game any different than he has in the past in terms of playing style. He can't mirror the fears of his mother about black players or it will cause his game, which was starting to round into form before the incident to spiral out of control.

Being an effective striker in the Premier League is hard enough without any irrational fears. If he starts looking over his shoulder as if he has a target on his back, he'll never be able to produce the same level of offense he has in the past.

At just 24 years old, Suarez has a promising career ahead of him. It would be unfortunate to see it get derailed by one controversial issue.

He's scored nearly 150 goals in his club career, which began in the 2005-06 season with Nacional. He's also made a major impact with the Uruguayan national team and has proven to be an extremely versatile player.

That's what supporters of the Reds want to continue to see in the future. Not only do their European hopes rely heavily on him this season but he's going to be a key cog for many seasons to come and they can't afford for him to get off track, which is why the team has been staunch in its support.

Hopefully for Suarez the entire situation can be resolved soon so that he can get back to focusing purely on football. The longer it drags on, the odds of it pulling him down increase.

That's something nobody should want to see happen.