Al-Taawoun played half of their match against Al-Hilal in the Saudi Roshn League a man short, and not because of a sending-off.
Al-Hilal thrashed Al-Taawoun 6-0 today, Saturday, at the hosts' stadium in Buraidah in the seventh round of the Saudi Roshn League.
A strange incident marked the game. Al-Taawoun finished with only 10 men after one of their players went down injured in the 67th minute.
Blame lies with Serbian boss Zarko Lazetic, Al-Taawoun's manager, who had burned through all five of his substitutions by the 58th minute while trailing 5-0.
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That decision left the Serbian with no option when one of his players was hurt in the 67th minute. He had to see out the rest of the match with 10 men.
Lazetic addressed the incident afterwards. Speaking at the post-match press conference, in comments carried by the Saudi newspaper "Asharq Al-Awsat", he said: "Had I known someone would get injured, I would not have used up all the changes so early."
He explained: "This is a mistake and I apologise for it, but when you are trailing by a big margin you try to bring on all the changes to improve the performance."
Earlier reports had raised the prospect of Lazetic losing his job as Al-Taawoun's manager, with former Al-Ettifaq coach Saad Al-Shehri touted to replace him.