Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini has praised Luis Suarez as 'cunning' after the former Liverpool striker bit him at the 2014 World Cup while representing Uruguay.
Suarez went unpunished during the game - Uruguay won 1-0 and qualified for the knockout stages at the expense of Italy - but was later banned for four months.
The forward went on to join Barcelona after the World Cup and Chiellini, writing in his autobiography, insists the incident is what separates Suarez from the 'ordinary'.
"Malice is part of football, I wouldn't call it illegitimate," Chiellini, who currently turns out for Juventus, said.
"To get past a rival you have to be smart. I admire his cunning.
"If he lost it, he'd become an ordinary forward."
Suarez was given a 10-match Premier League suspension while at Liverpool in 2013 for biting Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic.
