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Well, this is something you certainly don’t see every day. It certainly caught our eye.
A striker playing for SC Heerenveen of Netherland’s top league had given many viewers a cause for concern when he appeared to nearly pop his eye out of the socket during a game last week.
In the moment that surely left many viewers squeamish, Moldovan forward Ion Nicolaescu was walking up the field after a play when he blew his nose, with the pressure appearing to pop his eye nearly out of the socket.
The incident happened in a Dutch Cup match against amateur side Quick Boys, with footage of the injury going viral on social media, racking up hundreds of thousands of views.
Nicolaescu already was nursing a swollen and bruised eye following a collision with a rival player, but didn’t appear overly concerned by the impact.
Even more shocking, the forward didn’t appear to be in any discomfort as he jogged to return to his position after his eye began to bulge.
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He somehow didn’t appear to notice what had initially happened before rubbing above the newly former bulge above his eye with his hand.
Despite the shocking turn of events, Nicolaescu didn’t attempt to pop the eye back into place – in fact, he continued to play.
He would stay on the pitch until near the end of the match, when he was substituted with just moments remaining in extra time.
The extent of his injury currently is unknown and the player could be forced to wear a protective mask if any facial fractures are revealed. He was not part of the squad for Sunday’s Eredivisie game against Ajax.
Nicolaescu had a decent game, scoring a goal before he suffered the injury, but it wasn’t enough to avoid the shock upset.
Heerenveen manager Robin Van Persie, a Dutch soccer legend during his playing days, is under fire for making a questionable call to substitute his goalkeeper late in the game – with the backup making a critical error.
Van Persie later defended his decision, but did admit the move was unusual.
“It almost never happens in football, so I understand that it feels illogical to people,” Van Persie said.
“But the fact that it almost never happens was no reason for me not to do this. And we have discussed this often with Mickey (van der Hart) and Andries (Noppert) in recent months.
“You can think of all kinds of reasons why that substitution was not a good choice. But I mainly look at why it was a good choice.”