According to the rules of the game a push is only a foul if it is careless, reckless or using excessive force.

This is the point, the referee and subsequently VAR have decided it doesn’t meet any of these criteria. If every push was a foul then every single corner would be a pen/free kick one way or the other. It’s a physical game, for me Gabriel needs to be stronger there, he’s gone down looking for the free kick rather than challenge for the ball.

It’s just a completely pointless caveat that adds more confusion into the whole process.