Al-Ittihad has suffered a blow ahead of the final sprint in the Saudi Pro League title race after defender Zakaria al-Hawsawi was banned for the last six games of the season for spitting at an opponent.
Al-Ittihad, who are hoping to win the Saudi title for the first time in 14 years, leads the league by three points ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr with a game in hand.
The Disciplinary Committee of the Saudi Federation announced on Sunday that the left-back had been suspended for spitting at Poland’s Grzegorz Krychowiak during stoppage time of Al-Ittihad’s 2-1 victory over Al Shabab last Thursday.
The 22-year-old one-cap international was shown a red card for the incident, which occurred just after he came on as a substitute. He was also fined 60,000 riyals ($15,997.01).
The ban concludes a disappointing season for al-Hawsawi, who was named in the preliminary Saudi squad for the World Cup in neighboring Qatar but did not make the cut when coach Herve Renard named his final 26 players.
