Europa League star suffers horror damage and is patched up utilizing swimming cap

WARNING, GRAPHIC IMAGES Europa League star Daniele Rugani donned a swimming cap after he suffered a horror head injury against Eintracht Frankfurt

A Europa League star was left with a nasty gash on Thursday evening.

Veteran defender Daniele Rugani, 30, lined up for Ajax for their Round of 16 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt. The famous old Dutch side had lost the first leg, in Amsterdam, 2-1 and were left trailing for their trip to Germany.

And as Ajax tried to battle back, Rugani suffered the horror injury. The Italian was left with blood gushing down his face but refused to leave the field of play to help Ajax defend.

Rugani quickly ran to the sideline, where he collected a swimming cap and pulled it on to help stop the bleeding.

However, Rugani’s presence on the pitch wasn’t enough to help save Ajax’s European campaign – and they lost 6-2 on aggregate in Frankfurt.

Frankfurt will now face either Tottenham or AZ Alkmaar in the quarters, with Spurs chasing a 1-0 deficit from the first leg.

Ajax hero Wesley Sneijder was left fuming at the result: “It doesn’t make any sense, you can see that they are not attuned to each other at all!

“The amount of space Hugo Ekitike gets to turn at 1-0… I saw an Ajax in the first half that didn’t come here for the win. The entire team is swimming and you should be happy that it’s only 2-0.

“Oliver Edvardsen has to play like a glorified left back, that’s destroying players. This is terrible.”

Youri Mulder, who also appearing on Ziggo Sport, agreed with Sneijder. “This is entirely due to the starting line-up, this is not what Ajax stands for. This has nothing to do with that!”