If there was a strangest injury of the season award, Hannover’s Enzo Leopold may be taking home the honours.
The German midfielder was left on the floor needing treatment on Saturday after somehow kicking himself in the face.
Attempting to get his boot up to a ball, Leopold received a shove in the back from Paderborn midfielder Santiago Castaneda and ended up kneeing himself above the eye.
Play continued, but referee Florian Lechner then blew his whistle and told Leopold to go and get treatment.
Cameras picked up blood coming from his eyebrow, and two medics treated the blood with tissues before placing him on his back on the floor.
The 24-year-old then returned to the pitch with blood over his eye, but not as bad as when the incident occurred.
The Bundesliga 2 match ended 1-1, with Marcel Halstenberg scoring for hosts Hannover before Adriano Grimaldi sealed a point late on.
Leopold was only substituted in the 89th minute, being replaced by English defender Joshua Knight, previously of Leicester and Peterborough.
The draw was Hannover’s fifth on the bounce in German’s second tier in what is becoming a fascinating promotion battle.
They sit eighth in the league, but are still very much in with a shout of promotion.
The division’s top nine are separated by just seven points, with the top two teams promoted and third place taking on the Bundesliga’s 16th-place side in a relegation-promotion play-off.
Leading the table are traditional giants Hamburg who used to boast about never being relegated from the top tier until it all went awry in 2018.
The team even had a clock counting how long they’d been in the top flight, but since heading down they’ve been completely cursed.
Promotion charges have faltered year after year, finishing fourth on four occasions and third in their other two Bundesliga 2 campaigns before defeat in the play-off.
Behind them are fellow big club Cologne, led by former Burnley and Red Bull Salzburg manager Gerhard Struber.
Another huge side, two-time Bundesliga champions Kaiserslautern, are in third, having not been in the top flight since 2012.