Vinicius Jr to miss Barcelona after four-game suspension

Vinicius Jr will miss El Clasico against Barcelona after receiving a four-game suspension following his red card in Real Madrid's 1-0 win over Villarreal last Saturday. The Brazil international was sent off for pulling Nathan Saliba's hair during the match.

Vinicius came on after 52 minutes and thought he had scored his side's second goal. The referee reviewed the build-up on the pitchside monitor and, with Vinicius clearly being shown to have pulled Saliba's hair before scoring, sent him off and disallowed the goal. The dismissal left Real to finish the game a man down in their 1-0 victory over Villarreal.

The Spanish football federation's disciplinary committee imposed the suspension. It handed two games for "behaving violently ... (while) not being in a position to challenge for the ball". The committee added a further two matches for "protests" to the officials.

As a result of the ban, Vinicius will miss Real Madrid's fixtures against Sevilla (18 October) and Barcelona (25 October). He will also be unavailable for the matches against Racing Santander (1 November) and Valencia (7 November).

Following the match, Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho did not attend the post-match news conference. Vinicius also later apologised when he posted a message on social media. He wrote: "sorry to the team and the [Real Madrid] fans".

The suspension means Vinicius will not be available for Real's trip to Barcelona on 25 October, and he will also sit out the club's matches on 18 October, 1 November and 7 November.