A LALIGA match was stopped after a PIGEON was injured by a wayward ball.
Atletico Madrid‘s clash with Real Sociedad ground to a halt after the bird was struck by the ball.
The pigeon appeared hurt and was walking on the pitch but was rescued by one of the players.
It seemed that it was unable to fly away and get itself to safety.
Atletico star Jose Gimenez, 31, came to the aid of the bird as he could be seen picking it up.
The defender was able to catch it before it could walk away and escorted it off the pitch.
He placed the bird down in a safe spot away from the grass so it could recover from the incident.
Giminez was asked about the moment after the match by social media.
He told Spanish media: “I asked the referee what was happening.
“He told me it was because of the pigeon and I said: ‘Seriously? You stopped the match because of the pigeon?
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“I picked it up. I don’t know if there’s supposed to be a protocol.
“I hope it wasn’t seriously hurt.”
Gimenez impressed in the match as he also picked up an assist for team-mate Alexander Sorloth to score early on.
Sociedad did hit back as former West Ham loanee Carlos Soler netted an equaliser.
But the three points would stay in Madrid as Nicolas Gonzalez scored either side of a strike from Mikel Oyarzabal.
The win boosted Atletico’s grasp on third place in the LaLiga table but they are nine points adrift from city-rivals Real Madrid.
Diego Simeone‘s attention will now turn to the Champions League with the first leg of their tie against Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday.
Atletico will be confident of laying down a marker against the 16th-placed Premier League.
Spurs have lost all of their previous five games with their last win coming via a 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in January.
