Fiorentina striker Adrian Mutu's lawyers have spoken of his incident with a local waiter last week.
The Romanian is accused of breaking the Kosovar waiter's nose and kicking him in the chest while he was down at around 5am on Saturday morning.
After much speculation and an angry response from the club patron, Andrea Della Valle, Mutu's lawyers have finally spoken out.
"Mutu reacted to a series of repeated and serious racist insults and the threat that he would end up like the Romanian nurse who was killed by a punch in the Rome metro," explained the legal team of Nino D'Avirro and Michele Ducci.
They told RAI programme Stadio Sprint of their defence.
The waiter has said he will press charges, so the police investigation is on-going.