its irrelevant whterh he was to be hurt or not. that is NOT the criteria of any ajudication of that action.
Proper criteria pertain to,was it within acceptable distance to the ball ..and was it in play ? ( no it wasnt, quarter was OVER ) Does it breech any law of the game ? see. previous .
just little things like those !!!
and as an adjunct to your blinded view on this... had Lloydy not collected Carroll high enough , had Carroll just moved forward enough (After all Carroll was unawre of anyone about to hit him, since the quarter WAS over) then lloydy could have hit in the area of the kidneys.. that might do some harm dont you think ??
Just accept it was a foolish and cowardly act unbecoming of a captain let alone another player. He got knicked !!