Monza chief Adriano Galliani says Pablo Mari "saw everything" after he was the victim of a stabbing attack in a local shopping centre.

Arsenal defender Mari is on-loan at Monza and currently recovering in hospital from a wound in his back suffered during the attack.

Former AC Milan GM Galliani reported this morning: "He told me: 'I saw someone else die in my place'.

"He had the baby in the cart, his wife next to him and he didn't notice anything. He felt a kind of cramp in his back, but it was the stab. Probably his height saved him, because he was hit close to the back.

"Unfortunately he saw this thug stabbing a person in the throat, he saw everything, it's shocking."