By Chris Wright
Well, this is a new one on us. Napoli arrested their five-game Serie A winless slump with a 2-0 home win over Novara yesterday, but not before the match had to be put on ice for nearly 20 minutes with just two minutes played while referee Daniele Doveri had to have his shoulder…well, put on ice after somehow managing to dislocate it while signalling for a free-kick.
Doveri was given treatment at the side of the pitch from Napoli team doctor Alfonso De Nicola – lying down on a bench for a few minutes before returning to his changing room to receive a pain-killing injection. 18 minutes later Doveri then re-emerged and restarted the game like nothing had happened…
We’ve actually managed to apprehend some official footage of Doveri’s performance during the Napoli-Novara game and, upon watching his flamboyant technique, it becomes abundantly clear how he managed to wrench his arm free of its socket doing something as tawdry as giving a free-kick…