Independiente star Leandro Fernandez became the latest member of the football community to find out the extremes fans will go to to show their disapproval of a player.
The forward required medical attention earlier this week after a supporter of bitter rivals Racing Club launched a raw fish at his face during a Primera Division game.
Fernandez was carried off on a stretcher and checked by the club’s medical team before being deemed fit to continue playing in the highly-competitive fixture.
Argentine footballer Leandro Fernandez was hit in the face with a raw fish (above)
It appeared to be painful as he immediately dropped to the ground, clutching his face
But it was not even the first time a player was hit by a fish, with Hansa Rostock fans slinging a dead one at Carl Zeiss Jena supporters during a third division game in October 2017.
‘Nobody got hurt, and that surely wasn’t the intention after all,’ the club wrote on the Liga3 Online website. ‘Let’s not get carried away even though throwing dead animals isn’t all that tasty.’
Truth be told, the game has seen no end of peculiar projectiles thrown at players and staff.
Here, Sportsmail takes a look back at the most unusual objects which have found their way onto the football pitch.
Beach ball
Pepe Reina will never look back on October 17 2009 with any great deal of fondness.
You all probably know the story by now, when a Sunderland counter-attack ended with Darren Bent striking a shot in via a beach ball that had made its way onto the field.
The Liverpool goalkeeper had a few moments to forget as he attempted to save the beach ball rather than the football, a particularly costly mistake given it was the only goal of the game at the Stadium of Light.
The infamous ‘beach ball’ incident between Liverpool and Sunderland left Pepe Reina stranded
Liverpool players complained – and the rules indicate their protests may have been justified – but referee Mike Jones waved them away and the goal stood.
What looked as if it would have been a fairly regulation save has now gone down in Premier League folklore for bizarre moments.
A Liverpool fan later admitted throwing the bright red ball with the Liverpool crest on – which now occupies a place in the National Football Museum in Manchester – on to the pitch.
Pig’s head
El Clasico matches this century have had goals, sending-offs, moments of genius and fights in abundance. But none have been quite as bizarre as the 2002 clash between Barcelona and Real Madrid at the Nou Camp.
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