Tunisia's goalie 'fakes injury' to break Ramazan fast

Teammates rush to sidelines to drink water, consume dates after injury

Tunisia's football team has apparently found an ingenious way to fight fatigue as they fast during the month of Ramazan.

During friendly game against Portugal and then Turkey, their goalkeeper Mouez Hassen seemed to simulate an injury at during iftari time.

As he lay on the pitch receiving medical aid, his teammates rushed to the sidelines to drink water and consume dates and it led to instant results.

Losing 2-1 to European champions Portugal, Tunisia rebounded six minutes after Hassen's injury break by scoring an equaliser with the match ending 2-2.



Days later against Turkey, Hassen stopped play by lying on his back.

Once again, his teammates ate dates and drank water provided to them by waiting coaching staff with the game ending in a stalemate.

Football experts in Tunisia were quick to note the timing of the goalkeeper's injuries in the second half of both games in the 58th and 47th minutes of play.

The Tunisian football federation has yet to release a statement on the occurrence of the two injury breaks.

However, goalkeeper Hassen tweeted saying that "I was hurt, bruv" along with laughing emojis, in response to fellow footballer Chaker Alhadhur's jokey comment: "It's all right now, we know you were pretending."

The article originally appeared in the BBC