The Tunisian goalkeeper chose to feign an injury to help his teammates break their fast during two friendly warm-up matches against Portugal and Turkey. While it’s not uncommon for players to fake their injuries, Mouez Hassan’s acts were unquestionably fair and honest.
As Tunisia returns to the World Cup after a long absence of 12 years, it has been playing friendly matches against stronger teams to prepare itself. Tunisia’s opening fixture is against England on June 18.
Recently, the team played two warm-up games at a time when the players were fasting. Consequently, they decided to allow the goalkeeper to feign something serious to gain time. This helped the other players to drink water and eat something, thereby breaking their fast.
Fun fact:
Tunisian National team has played the last two friendlies while fasting. So, whenever the time comes to break Fast. The players have an agreement that the GK would go down so they can get a moment to drink some water and get something to eat 😂😂#Ramadan #tunisia pic.twitter.com/4Rgz380ukW— Souhail Khmira (@SKhmira) June 2, 2018
The footage from the matches show how Hassan received medical treatment lying on the ground, while his teammates rushed to the sidelines to drink water and eat dates. Many media reports also revealed that this was merely done to help the players break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
This fact was not even hidden from other football experts and players. In fact, one of his fellow footballers, Chaker Alhadur, cheekily commented: “It’s all right now, we know you were pretending.”
Clearly, this sincere but pretentious act has given fans, players and experts something to laugh about, in the days leading to football’s most prestigious event.
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