DTotD: Luisao ‘knocks out’ referee with a shove, friendly gets abandoned

A friendly between Fortuna Dusseldorf and Benfica took a bizarre turn and was abandoned before halftime. Late in the first half, referee Christian Fischer was pulling out a yellow card for a foul that just occurred when Benfica captain Luisao came rushing over to protest and shoved the official. Fischer immediately went down like a sack of wet clothes and appeared to lose consciousness.

It was a troubling scene that prompted both players and Fischer's fellow officials to surround him as he laid motionless before appearing to wake up as medical staff treated him. The odd thing, however, was how relatively light the contact before Luisao was, though. It didn't seem enough to knock a man unconscious, but when Fischer did get back to his feet, he immediately led his crew down the tunnel and the match was abandoned.

Did the ref take a dive to get out of working a friendly? Was Luisao's blow actually more devastating than it looked? The world may never know.

This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.