Vinicius apologises for hair-pull red card but could miss El Clasico

Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr has apologised ⁠⁠to ⁠⁠his teammates and the club’s fans after being sent off in the 1-0 ⁠⁠win over Villarreal in La Liga at the Santiago Bernabeu but now faces a ⁠⁠nervous wait for a ruling by the disciplinary committee, which could see him miss Real’s fixture with rivals Barcelona in two weeks.

The Brazilian thought he had scored Real’s second goal in the match on Saturday, but his effort was disallowed after a video assistant referee (VAR) review found he should be dismissed for pulling Nathan Saliba’s hair in the build-up.

After the match, Vinicius, ⁠⁠who came on in the ⁠⁠52nd minute and was red-carded 20 minutes later, posted on social media, saying, “sorry to the team and the ⁠⁠fans”.

Vinicius was celebrating after scoring when referee Isidro Diaz de Mera was called by the VAR to review the moments before his goal. The referee waved off the goal and pulled out a red card for Vinicius.

When he thought Vinicius had doubled the lead, Real manager Jose Mourinho ran to join the celebrations with his players.

But moments later, Vinicius was left livid by the referee’s decision. He screamed at Diaz de Mera while his teammates tried to calm him down as he left the field.

“I don’t think he meant to hurt anyone, but it is a red card,” Villarreal defender Juan Foyth said about the hair yank of Saliba.

Diaz de Mera wrote in his match report that after being shown the red card, Vinicius “protested my decision, raising his voice, toward where I was standing in an aggressive manner, and being held back by teammates”.

Royal Spanish Football Federation regulations state that pulling an opponent’s hair ⁠⁠is regarded as violent conduct.

The ⁠⁠sanction for violent conduct without causing injury to an opponent, according to Article 130 of the league’s rules, is a ban of one to three ‌‌matches.

Real’s next three La Liga games are against Sevilla, Barca and Racing Santander, but missing El ‌‌Clasico ‌‌would be a bitter blow for the 26-year-old Brazil international.

Mourinho did not appear at the mandatory post-game news conference.