Je tiens a presenter toutes mes excuses à la nation Ivoirienne, a mes coequipiers , aux supporters et aux organisateurs de la CAN
— Gervinho (@GervinhOfficial) January 21, 2015
Gervinho has been banned for two Africa Cup of Nations after being sent-off in Ivory Coast’s opening game against Guinea yesterday.
The Roma star was shown a straight red card after hitting opponent Naby Keita in the face and has now been ruled out of both of his nation’s other group games against Mali and Cameroon.
His tournament could be over already if Ivory Coast fail to qualify for the quarter-finals in his absence. They fought back from 1-0 down at the time of Gervinho’s 58th minute dismissal to secure a 1-1 draw without him against Guinea.
The former Arsenal man took to his official Twitter account to apologise for the incident.
He wrote: “I want to apologise to the Ivory Coast nation, my team-mates, the fans and the African Nations Cup organisers for this gesture of anger.
“It is not like me and it does not have its place on a football pitch.”
