Madrid: Real Madrid defender Antonio Rüdiger won six games on Tuesday for his actions against the referee in the final of the team’s loss to Barcelona’s Copa Del Rey.
Rudiger shouted at the referee and seemed to throw a small bag of ice in Madrid’s overtime loss to Barcelona on Saturday.
The Spanish Football Federation’s Discipline Committee said Rudiger’s ban was “slight violence” against officials.
Another Madrid player, Lucas Vazquez, was sentenced to two-game timeouts for protests against match officials.
Since then, Rüdiger apologized for his actions, but the incident prompted former German player Dietmar Hamann to call Sunday to leave the defender out of fourth place in the National League Final in June.
The 32-year-old Rüdiger successfully underwent surgery in a left knee laceration Tuesday and will begin “his recovery process” in the near future. The club has no timetable to give him a return, but recovery is expected to take several weeks.
Rudiger said the surgery was “inevitably” after experiencing “severe pain.”
“Now I’m finally painless again, the surgery is successful,” he said on Instagram. In a post-operative article, his photos included photos of him in the hospital, one lying in a bed and the other holding a crutch in a wheelchair.
“I hope to be able to play again as soon as possible in two big matches in the National League and Club World Cup, but I have to look at it weekly and we will see. I will do everything I can to achieve that.”
Germany plays Portugal in the National League semi-finals held in Munich on June 4. Madrid’s first game at the US Club World Cup was June 18.
