Despite having put in a fairly decent shift up to that point, Olympique Marseille winger Andre Ayew had to be substituted off after just 52 minutes of his side's 2-0 defeat to Montpellier in Ligue 1 on Sunday after a problem with his kit forced the Ghanaian international to bow out of the tie early.
Ayew had sustained a cut to his head in the first half that required bandaging. When the referee spotted drips of blood on his crisp white shirt after the restart, the 24-year-old forward was forced to change his jersey, as are the rules these days.
However, it turned out that Marseille had somehow failed to pack any spare Ayew No. 10 shirts.
It was subsequently ruled that Ayew would not be allowed to re-enter the game without a jersey with his name and number on the back.
Bricolage Olympien #OMMHSC Tout ça pour sortir @AyewAndre #nimportenawak pic.twitter.com/WunPh3jb8q
— OMReplay.fr (@OMReplay) August 17, 2014
In a desperate bid to keep Ayew on the pitch, Marseille staff attempted to rig up an impromptu No. 10 shirt using someone else's jersey and a roll of white tape, but the referee was having none of it, ordering the winger to be replaced by a non-bleeding player.
After bickering with officials for several minutes, Marseille were eventually forced to sub off Ayew and replace him with Dimitri Payet, who, thankfully, had remembered to bring his kit with him.
What a bloomin' palaver!