Brendan on ballboy incident

With 10 minutes remaining at the Liberty Stadium and Swansea cruising towards the final of the competition courtesy of a 2-0 aggregate lead over the visitors, Hazard clashed with the ballboy off the field.

During his pre-Oldham press conference at Melwood on Friday afternoon, Rodgers was asked for his take on the event.

"I know Charlie well actually," laughed the manager. "He was great for me. He was taught well.

"He's a good boy, he loves his club and he loves his football. It was just an unfortunate incident to be fair. Hazard is obviously trying to get the ball back and, of course, none of us want to see [the incident] happen but I'm sure it wasn't intentional from Hazard.

"I've read all the ridiculous comments about whether [Hazard] should face criminal charges. It was just one of those incidents. Charlie's Twitter account has now got some more hits on it!

"Ballboys are well tuned-in to what's required in the game and it was maybe a wee bit of gamesmanship by Charlie but it's certainly nothing sinister. He's a real good kid. Any manager, player or coach would be happy if their ballboy did that."

The manager was also keen to praise his former club Swansea, who will now face Bradford at Wembley as they go in search of the first piece of major silverware in the club's history.

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"They are really passionate at Swansea about their football club and congratulations go to them," said Rodgers. "It's a wonderful achievement over two legs to get through to the final and hopefully they will go on and have a chance to win their first major trophy.

"It was a great result, I haven't spoken to anyone - I have just exchanged messages with one or two of the people there."

Questioned for a final time off-camera as to whether he felt 17-year-old Morgan was too old to be a ballboy, Rodgers joked: "He's a ballman."