Didier Drogba, the Ivory Coast football icon, has questioned the length of Eric Bailly’s seven-game punishment for a foul that hospitalised Almike Moussa N’Diaye.
Bailly received the ban on Thursday following a French Football Federation investigation into the risky tackle in which his leg made contact with the chest of Hyères 83 player N’Diaye during a French Cup match.
N’Diaye, a Mauritania international, remains in hospital and has been unable to talk since the foul, but he stated in a written statement with RMC Sport that he was suffering from injuries to his liver, kidneys, and ribs.
However, in a tweet, Didier Drogba, who previously played for Marseille, compared Bailly’s penalty to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s considerably shorter two-game ban for a high kick while a PSG player in 2012, as well as a similar tackle by Tunisian Wahbi Khazri for Montpellier in January.
“The action is dangerous but the difference between the bans is astonishing, isn’t it?”, Didier Drogba wrote.
Bailly apologised to N’Diaye after the game, and Ndiaye dubbed him a “brother” on social media. Meanwhile, Marseille is yet to decide whether to appeal Bailly’s suspension.