Eric Bailly: Drogba questions seven-game ban

Bailly is currently on loan at Marseille from Manchester United

Ivory Coast legend Didier Drogba has questioned the length of a seven-game ban given to Eric Bailly for a foul that hospitalised Almike Moussa N’Diaye.

Bailly was handed the ban on Thursday after a review by the French Football Federation into the dangerous tackle, in which his leg made contact with the chest of Hyères 83 player N’Diaye during a French Cup tie.

Mauritania international N’Diaye remains in hospital, and has been unable to speak since the foul, but in a written interview with RMC Sport external-link has explained he was suffering from injuries to his liver, kidneys and ribs.

But in a tweet, Drogba external-link – who also played for Marseille – compared Bailly’s punishment to the much shorter two-game bans received by Zlatan Ibrahimovic for a high kick while a PSG player in 2012, and also a similar tackle by Tunisian Wahbi Khazri for Montpellier in January.

“The action is dangerous but the difference between the bans is astonishing, isn’t it?”, he wrote.

After the game, Bailly visited N’Diaye to apologise, after which Ndiaye called him a “brother” on his social media.

Bailly’s club Marseille are yet to decide whether they will appeal the ban.