Mario Balotelli was involved in a new argument with his teammates…
Mario Balotelli was both hero and villain on Tuesday evening, as he was embroiled in fresh controversy despite scoring the crucial equalising goal against Swansea City, a game the Reds won 2-1.
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Reports in the Daily Express explain that the Italian striker appeared to be kicked out of Liverpool’s pre-match warm-up, before coming off the bench to score only his second goal for the club, since his £16m summer move from AC Milan.
Talksport radio reporter Graham Beecroft, who witnessed the incident, said the Liverpool substitutes had been playing a game of piggy-in-the-middle where whoever lost the ball had to go into the middle of the centre circle.
He said Balotelli appeared to refuse on one occasion to go into the middle, having an altercation with a team-mate, and then seemed to kick the ball towards the face of another team-mate.
Beecroft said: “After continuing to mess around Mike Marsh, the first team coach got hold of him and said “clear off, go away”, shoved him towards the centre circle.
“He went over and saw somebody else, a tracksuited member of the backroom staff at Liverpool… and then, after getting no joy out of him, walked off the field on his own.”
A spokesman for Liverpool said Balotelli left the field during the warm-up because of a “slight knee injury”.
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