Hazard said: “The boy put his whole body onto the ball and I was just trying to kick the ball and I think I kicked the ball and not the boy. I apologise.”

The Belgian was shown a red card in the 80th minute after he lost patience when the ballboy refused to hand over the ball after it had gone out of play for a goal-kick. Hazard then appeared to try to kick it from underneath him but instead made contact with the youngster.

Video replay – did Chelsea’s Eden Hazard kick Swansea ball boy

Ball boy ‘pre-planned time wasting antics’

The ball boy who was at the centre of the Eden Hazard scandal pre-planned his time wasting tactics that eventually led to the Belgian kicking him in the ribs.

On the afternoon of the game, the ball boy, a 17-year-old named Charlie Morgan, took to Twitter and posted the following:

The ball boy who was at the centre of the Eden Hazard scandal pre-planned his time wasting tactics and posted his plans on Twitter

I cannot say that what Hazard did was right, but again this incident is typical of English football. This ball boy is nothing more than a hooligan and there are scores of them in English stadiums. I don’t think Eden deserves the red card. This is what I would have liked to see: