This is something we don’t see every day.
A player in the Swedish 5th tier league team Vita Hästen seemingly mistook the referee for a player as he laid a massive hit in the corner of a game against Motala.
The hit was massive, and the referee was sent flying against the boards. The referee had to leave the game and was sent to the hospital with a broken arm.
According to reports in Sweden, he’s currently waiting to undergo surgery on the arm, which will happen today or tomorrow.
The scary hit quickly went viral on social media, and the team has issued an apology as they claim it was accidental.
”Of course, he didn’t want to hit the referee. But I can see what happened, and I’m not stupid. We hope everything is okay with the referee,” the team’s sporting director said to the Swedish outlet Expressen on Sunday.
The hit on the referee didn’t result in any penalty called during the game, but on Monday, it was announced that the player is suspended.
”He’s suspended pending an investigation,” a person from the disciplinary committee said. ”They have five days to respond. We, just like you, have seen what happened. It’s a sad day for hockey.”
The referee has told media he’s ‘in so much pain,’ and the player who laid the hit claimed the referee was in the way pretty much during the whole game.
”It’s an important game and everyone’s excited. Especially me, who likes playing physical hockey. The referee was in the way, just like he was all the time in the game. But it was accidental, of course,” he said.
How long the suspension may end up being is not decided at the moment, but it will, with all certainty, be a long one.
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