Former Eredivisie regular Mark-Jan Fledderus had a weekend to forget.

The 41-year-old former Groningen sporting director came out of retirement to play in a fourth-tier game at the weekend for HSC.

Signing on a short-term deal, Fledderus came with big hopes, but his debut against ODV saw him punch an opponent right in the face.

Incredibly, the midfielder only got a yellow card, with the referee admitting that he missed the incident.

Club chairman Hans Nijland made a big push to bring in Fedderus, but admitted post-match: “We got some nice publicity with it, our club was back on the map.

“But now it’s coming back to our faces like a boomerang. As chairman, I feel very responsible for this.

“We exist 125 years this year. And things like this don’t belong here.”

“Mark-Jan has now decided not to play football anymore. I was asked whether we as a board would suspend him, but we don’t have to talk about that anymore.

“I apologized to the ODV player who received the blow in the face and to their chairman. They accepted it magnanimously.”

Fledderus himself added: “Everyone knows that I was a temperamental player and I should not let myself be provoked.

“That worked for about sixty minutes, but then an ODV player gave me a push as I was walking back and I found him very annoying.

“Then I punched him in the face back. I shouldn’t do that and if the referee had seen it, it would have been a red card.

“Somehow I can’t get that out of my head. Then I think again: what are you doing, you idiot?”