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World Cup winner Fabio Grosso, the Lyon coach, has suffered a head injury as the team bus came under attack from fans throwing projectiles before their French Ligue 1 match in Marseille., which was then called off.
Grosso, most famous in Australia for winning the penalty from Lucas Neill that saw the Socceroos eliminated from the 2006 World Cup, has only been in charge at OL for a few weeks after they sacked their coach, 1998 World Cup winner Laurent Blanc, following a horror start to the season.
The Lyon bus was hit on the way to Stade Velodrome, shattering some windows. Grosso was injured by falling shards of glass and needed medical treatment with his face heavily bleeding.
The match was subsequently called off before kick-off by French league officials, and seven people have been arrested.
“We have a coach who’s got blood coming out of his head,” said Lyon president John Textor.
“He’s got pieces of glass stuck in his head. And he must have taken some contact to his head that was more than shattering glass because he wasn’t really lucid.
“It was quite a shocking scene. He’s still not in good shape. He clearly could not coach. I couldn’t even have a conversation with him.
“He was bandaged and had a great deal of physical injury but in trying to have a conversation with him it looked like he had a concussion.”
Marseille later released a statement wishing Grosso well and condemning the violence.
“The club wishes a speedy recovery to Lyon coach Fabio Grosso and strongly condemns this violent behaviour, which has no place in the world of football and in society,” it read.
“Due to a handful of unconscientious people, the party planned for this evening was spoiled and deprived 65,000 supporters of attending a football match.”
The French government also made comments, with sports minister Amelie Oudea Castera posting on social media.
“The images of the OL bus attacked with stones and its supporters, and of Fabio Grosso’s blooded face, are appalling,” she wrote.
“These unacceptable acts deny the very values of soccer and sport, and the perpetrators must all be found and severely punished.”
Grosso scored the winning penalty kick for Italy in the shoot-out victory over France in the 2006 World Cup final.
Both clubs have been under pressure lately.
Despite replacing Marcelino with Gennaro Gattuso as coach in September, Marseille have still been showing poor form with one win and three losses in their last four league games.
Lyon are the only team still winless in the league, and replacing Blanc with Grosso as coach in September is yet to pay off, with the former giants still running dead last.
With AAP
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