Carlos speaks out over refs and Fernando

Carlos Carvalhal believes Fernando Forestieri might have to suffer a broken leg in a tackle before the authorities take a serious look at the unfair treatment handed out to him by referees since the turn of the year.

After incidents of alleged diving at Preston and Hull, the latter resulting in Forestieri wrongly being sent off, the striker was again penalised and yellow carded against MK Dons on Tuesday night when referee Darren Handley said he dived, despite replays clearly showing he was brought down by defender Kyle McFadzean.

Now the club have expressed their worries over the situation to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited and have asked for an explanation with regard to the player being punished three times in this way.

Carvalhal said: “We are using the correct channels. After the Hull game, we called for someone from the referees group to come talk to us. We talked with him and he agreed with us 100 per cent.

“He promised to us that he would talk to the referees and not to use Fernando’s image, just analyse the situation.

“Now we have this incident. If they have tried to prevent this situation happening again, why is it happening again? It’s very bad for the club, bad for the image of the player, and we are not happy.

“It’s very serious. We don’t understand and we need an explanation. We want to believe this is normal, but this incident on Tuesday was so obvious.

“Are we waiting for someone to break the leg of Fernando before someone does anything? Are they waiting for something serious to happen to him before they take it seriously?”

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