Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr will miss El Clasico against Barcelona after being given a four-game ban.
The Brazil international was sent off for pulling Nathan Saliba’s hair in Real Madrid’s 1-0 win against Villarreal last Saturday. Vinicius had come on after 52 minutes and believed he had scored his side’s second goal, but the referee reviewed the build-up on the pitchside monitor and, with Vinicius clearly shown to have pulled Saliba’s hair before scoring, sent him off and disallowed the goal.
The Spanish football federation’s disciplinary committee suspended the winger for two games for “behaving violently … (while) not being in a position to challenge for the ball”, and a further two matches for “protests” to the officials. The ban means he will sit out the matches against Sevilla on 18 October, Barcelona on 25 October, Racing Santander on 1 November and Valencia on 7 November.
Following the match, Real Madrid manager José Mourinho did not attend the post-match news conference. Vinicius later apologised in a message posted on social media, saying he was “sorry to the team and the [Real Madrid] fans”.