Marca says tensions were running high at a media conference on Friday, during which local journalists asked no questions as a form of protest about their being excluded from a closed training session earlier.

Allegedly, Eto'o responded to the situation by hurling insults, and he then approached a private radio journalist named Phillipe Bony. Then he headbutted Bony, making him bleed.

As Bony himself put it, "He grabbed me, and hit me with his head on my upper lip - now I have a loose tooth."