Sergio Aguero lands FA charge following elbow

Sergio Aguero faces a three-match ban after being charged with violent conduct by the Football Association for elbowing Winston Reid in Manchester City’s 3-1 victory over West Ham United on Sunday.

The incident, which happened in the 76th minute as Aguero challenged the West Ham defender from a long clearance, was not punished at the time by referee Andre Marriner, who put in his match report that he had not seen what had happened.

Aguero has until Wednesday at 6 p.m. BST to answer to the charge, but if he does not contest it then he would automatically receive a three-game ban.

That means he would be suspended for the Manchester derby at Old Trafford on Sept. 10. He would also miss the Premier League home clash with Bournemouth on Sept. 17 and the EFL Cup third-round clash with Swansea City three days later. But he would be eligible to play in City’s Champions League clash with Borussia Monchengladbach, which follows the game against United.

A statement released by the FA read: “Sergio Aguero has been charged for an alleged act of violent conduct which was not seen by the match officials but caught on video.

“The Manchester City forward was involved in an incident with West Ham United’s Winston Reid in the 76th minute of the game on Sunday [28 August 2016]. He has until 6pm on Wednesday 31 August to reply.

“Off the ball incidents which are not seen at the time by the match officials are referred to a panel of three former elite match officials. Each panel member will review the video footage independently of one another to determine whether they consider it a sending-off offence. For retrospective action to be taken, and an FA charge to follow, the decision of the panel must be unanimous.”

Aguero could be a doubt for the clash with United anyway after picking up a calf injury in the victory over West Ham.

He was substituted in the 88th minute at the Etihad Stadium and has pulled out of Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers with Uruguay and Venezuela.

Both Pep Guardiola and Slaven Bilic said they missed the alleged elbow at the Etihad although the West Ham played down the seriousness of the incident.

Reid was replaced by Jonathan Calleri and left the pitch holding his neck but Bilic said he was going to substitute the New Zealand international anyway.