Branislav Ivanovic has forgiven Luis Suarez for biting him during Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool in April at Anfield.
The Uruguayan international made headlines around the world after cameras clearly caught him biting the Chelsea defender and was consequently slapped with a 10-match ban by the Football Association for his actions.
Chelsea was leading 2-1 in the 73rd minute when the Liverpool striker tried to beat Ivanovic, and, when he failed to push the ball past, the Serbian he resorted to biting his arm.
The match officials did not see the foul and did not give Suarez a red card. To make matters worse for Chelsea, Suarez netted the equalizer at the death to salvage a point for the Reds.
Ivanovic has now revealed on Wednesday that he accepted Suarez’s apology and is ready to move on from the incident.
“When it happened I was surprised and angry,” he said. But after the game I calmed down and all was forgotten. We spoke on the phone, I accepted the apology, the police did not press charges.”
Suarez is no stranger to controversy of course as he was banned for seven games last season for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra.
This is not the first time the mercurial forward has been suspended for biting either. He was handed a seven-match ban by the Dutch FA when he bit Otman Bakkal when he played for Ajax back in 2011.
Ivanovic was surprised by not only the incident , but the ferocity of the reporting from the media afterwards.
“It was really a strange situation. Overnight I was everywhere because of what happened even though I was only a minor character. For the first time in the news everything was about me.”
Branislav Ivanovic has clearly forgiven Luis Suarez for the biting fiasco and is ready to let bygones be bygones in a sport where grudges sometimes rule the day.