After throwing the ball at the head of the downed Australian striker from the sidelines during Saturday's match at the World Cup, Manchester United's Hannibal Mejbri was instructed to shake hands with Mitchell Duke, which resulted in a confrontation between the two players. Mejbri plays for Manchester United.
Hannibal managed to make headlines despite the fact that he was an unused substitute for Tunisia in their loss to Australia by the score of 1-0. He did this by hitting Duke with the ball from the sidelines while Duke was down on the ground with an injury. Duke is a star player for the Socceroos.
Duke stood up to confront Hannibal, but he was able to keep his composure throughout the confrontation. After that, the referee asked both players to shake hands, which they did before having a conversation during the halftime break.
After thinking about what happened, the Australian revealed that Hannibal offered his condolences during the break for hitting him and that he accepted them.
"When I tried to control the ball with my chest, a defender kind of came through the back of me and kind of smacked me through the back," Duke explained to Wide World of Sports. "While I was on the ground, someone had thrown a ball and hit me on my beak."
"I am well aware that it is not very simple to overlook that. To feel like he purposely threw a ball at my face, I was ready to get a bit pumped up and fired up, which is why I wasn't happy with it, of course, because I was already in agony from the knock. I was already in pain from the knock.
"At the end of the day, he said it wasn't on purpose, we shook hands, the referee was happy with that - and to be fair, he approached me again at half time to say sorry and that it was an accident, so all's fair in that situation, and respect is there," the player said. "The referee was happy with that."
Hannibal earned a reputation for being a fiery character while playing in United's youth academy. During his brief cameo appearance against Liverpool at Anfield in the Premier League in April, Hannibal received a yellow card for his play, which earned him praise from Gary Neville and Bryan Robson.