Think before you ink. That should have been Manchester United right back Guillermo Varela’s motto, as the Uruguayan has been suspended by his loan club, Eintracht Frankfurt, due to a tattoo. Yes, a tattoo. Despite Frankfurt manager Niko Kovac’s wishes that he did not get one until after the season, Varela went ahead and got the ink on his left arm. As fate would have it, the 24-year-old’s arm suffered an inflammation after the new tattoo got infected, which will cause him to miss Saturday’s DFB Pokal final against Borussia Dortmund.
Varela had been loaned to the German club by Manchester United during the summer of 2016, but saw his stint in Frankfurt plagued by injuries. Just as he began to make his mark, starting three of the last four games and playing a part in the semi-final win over Borussia Monchengladbach, Varela went against his manager and will be paying a huge price, first by missing the final and second by losing his possible soccer home.
Prior to this incident, Eintracht Frankfurt was considering bringing the Uruguayan back for another season. Following Tattoogate 2K17, however, that seems highly unlikely. “The club cannot tolerate that a player would defy instructions,” said sporting director Fredi Bobic in a statement on the club’s website. “We’d been thinking about a loan extension. But that won’t happen. He’ll be suspended with immediate effect.”
Interestingly enough, Varela’s tattoo is not even finished. The studio Skull Tattoostudio Bad Vilbel told German newspaper Kicker that Varela was booked for “several sessions” to finish the ink.