A truly bizarre incident occurred during Spezia’s game with Inter, as M’Bala Nzola had to be substituted after 10 minutes because of his earring.
The striker came off the bench with the result 1-0 for Inter at the 60th minute, replacing Rey Manaj.
Within a minute, the referee spotted he had a large earring and told him to take it off before he could continue.
That proved to be impossible, as Nzola spent several minutes on the touchline fiddling with his ear, aided by members of the Spezia staff, all to no avail.
Eventually, he gave up, threw his hands in the air and went to sit back down on the bench.
A stunned coach Thiago Motta had to use up his final substitution slot to bring on Janis Antiste, 10 minutes after Nzola had originally been introduced.
The fourth official ought to take some responsibility for the error in allowing Nzola to enter the pitch wearing the earring in the first place.
Lo más insólito que vas a ver… ¿en el año? M’Bala Nzola ingresó por Rey Manaj a los 60′ y recibió un llamado de atención del árbitro por sus aritos en la #SerieAxESPN. El jugador de Spezia intentaba sacarse el pendiente, pero tardó mucho y a los 69’… ¡EL TÉCNICO LO SACÓ! pic.twitter.com/v9a9rzMiOW
— SportsCenter (@SC_ESPN) April 15, 2022