Vini Jr. red-carded for hair pull after VAR rules out goal in Madrid win

BREAKING: Vinicius Junior sent off for pulling an opponent's hair in a cameo off the bench during Real Madrid's LaLiga win over Villarreal, with his goal ruled out by VAR, as he later apologised to teammates and fans and Mourinho skipped his press conference.

Vinicius Junior just got sent off for pulling someone's hair. In a goal he scored.

He came off the bench with Madrid level against Villarreal, and twenty minutes later he thought he'd made it 2-0, converting Bellingham's pass with Mourinho sprinting onto the pitch to celebrate. Then VAR had a look. Watch what happens here, replays showed him yanking Nathan Saliba's hair in the build-up, goal gone, straight red from Isidro Díaz de Mera.

You can see the mood in this shot, the Madrid bench was furious, Tchouameni said he doesn't understand what's happening with the referees. And Mourinho, who'd already dropped Vinicius from the starting eleven for poor form, simply skipped his press conference. Silence from that man says plenty.

Vinicius apologised on Instagram, the joy remains, sorry to my team and the fans. Madrid won 1-0, but their most expensive forward starts next week benched, banned, and begging forgiveness.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.