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Bizarre scenes at NEC - Olympiakos on Tuesday evening. Emre Mor had to come on for the Nijmegen side midway through the first half, but that substitution was delayed for minutes for a very unusual reason.
Misfortune struck for Sami Ouaissa in the 27th minute after he appeared to have strained a muscle in his thigh shortly beforehand. Dick Schreuder had to make a change and sent Mor on.
That substitution should have happened straight away, but it was held up for several minutes. An NEC staff member could be seen treating Mor's ear, presumably because of an earring. It did not simply come loose.
"He still has to take out an earring before he is allowed to come on," Ziggo Sport commentator Wytse van der Goot also noted. "Or something has to be taped over. Surely this cannot be a surprise, that he is not allowed to play with this."
Then Van der Goot added: "Yes, not having his things in order," while a furious Schreuder was also shown on screen shouting. Mor's problem left NEC a man down for minutes.
Still astonished, Van der Goot said: "Maybe he has worn it before and the Italian officials are stricter about it here? No idea. This is unbelievable. The last word has not yet been said about this."
Five minutes later, NEC suffered another blow as Philippe Sandler also had to go off. Brayann Pereira is his replacement.