Zlatan Ibrahimovic in danger, faces ban after clash leaves opponent facing surgery
Football
By
Mirror
| Jul 22, 2019
Zlatan Ibrahimovic faces an MLS ban after leaving an opponent facing surgery.
Ibrahimovic took the acclaim following a bad-tempered LA derby on Friday night, scoring a hat-trick as LA Galaxy ran out 3-2 winners against LAFC, in the fixture branded 'El Trafico'.
The Swede, who had been outspoken in the build-up to the encounter, delivered three points for his side against the MLS leaders, cutting their lead at the top of the Western Conference down to nine points.
But Ibrahimovic was met with fury at full-time over a second-half clash with Mohamed El-Monir - which has left the Libyan international facing surgery.
Video footage showed ex-Manchester United striker Ibrahimovic twice look at El-Monir's position, before leaping up and elbowing the defender in the face.
READ MORE
Doctors set 90-day ultimatum for pay talks, warn of strike
Kenya, Italy adopt four-year cooperation plan after Ruto-Meloni talks
The incident occurred minutes after the veteran forward and his teammates had been left furious with the match official over his decision not to take sterner action against the left-back for a challenge on Galaxy midfielder Joe Corona.
Ibrahimovic was met with fury from the LAFC bench at full-time over the clash, which, despite VAR being in play use, went unpunished.
LAFC goalkeeper coach Zak Abdel led the complaints at full-time, confronting Ibrahimovic on the field.
That led to the Swede declaring: "Go home, you little b**** - Go home"
New York Red Bulls defender Amro Tarek - a friend and former teammate of El-Monir at Orlando City - labelled the incident "just unbelievable".
And MLS' disciplinary committee are now understood to be looking into the incident, with Ibrahimovic set for potential retrospective action after leaving the 27-year-old with a fractured face.
El-Monir will see a facial specialist on Monday.
Ibrahimovic has already been suspended by MLS chiefs once this season.
He was issued a two-game ban and undisclosed fine for violent conduct in May, following an incident with New York City FC 'keeper Sean Johnson, and will face a longer spell on the touchline if found guilty of purposely seeking to injure El-Monir.
Ibrahimovic has scored 16 times for Galaxy so far this season, in just 17 games.