Manchester United's Hannibal Mejbri was told to shake hands with Mitchell Duke on Saturday at the World Cup after throwing the ball at the felled Australian striker's head from the sidelines, which led to a confrontation between the two players.
Although Hannibal was an unused substitute in Tunisias's 1-0 defeat by Australia, he managed to make headlines regardless when hitting Duke with the ball from the sidelines when the Socceroos' star was down on the floor with an injury.
Duke stood up to confront Hannibal but he managed to remain relatively calm. The referee then asked both players to shake hands, which they complied with before a half-time chat.
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The Australian reflected on the incident and he revealed that Hannibal apologised during the interval for hitting him.
"A defender kind of came through the back of me when I tried to control the ball with my chest, he kind of smacked me through the back and then while I was on the ground, someone had thrown a ball and hit me on my beak," Duke told Wide World of Sports.
"I know it's not easy to miss that. I wasn't happy with it, obviously, because I was already in agony from the knock - to feel like he purposely threw a ball at my face, I was ready to get a bit pumped up and fired up.
"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."
Hannibal built a reputation for being a fiery character in United's academy and he was yellow-carded during his brief cameo against Liverpool at Anfield in the Premier League in April, which drew praise from Gary Neville and Bryan Robson.
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