Marcelo, a former Brazil international who plays for Fluminense, has been banned for three games by CONMEBOL because he hurt Luciano Sanchez, a defender for Argentinos Juniors, when he lunged at him during a Copa Libertadores match in Buenos Aires last week. Sanchez’s injury was very bad.
South American soccer’s governing body said Thursday that the 35-year-old left back will also have to pay a $6,000 fine.
Marcelo was moving the ball toward Sanchez when his leading foot slipped off the ball and hit Sanchez hard on the shin. The Argentinos player’s leg buckled under him at a strange angle, causing him to fall to the ground in pain.
Sanchez was taken off the field on a cart with a break that the team doctor later said he had “never seen before.”
After the incident in the first leg of the last 16 match, which ended 1-1, the former Real Madrid player was sent off in tears.
“Today I had a very hard time on the field,” Marcelo wrote hours later on Instagram.
“I hurt another player without meaning to. I want him to get better as soon as possible. All of the power in the world.”
Marcelo has already served the first of his three-game suspensions because he didn’t play in the second leg, which Brazil won 2-0.