BERLIN (Reuters) - Schalke 04 goalkeeper Alexander Nuebel has been suspended for four games and fined for a brutal kung-fu style foul on Eintracht Frankfurt's Mijat Gacinovic that earned him a straight red card, the German Football Association said on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old Germany youth international and Schalke captain charged out of his goal and tried to kick the ball away, but with his leg at full stretch he crashed into the chest of the Frankfurt midfielder in the match on Sunday.
Gacinovic tumbled to the ground and was left with several bruised ribs and cuts to the chest, while the referee sent Nuebel off. Schalke eventually won the game 1-0.
Nuebel will be out until late January, with the league breaking for winter after this weekend and resuming in mid-January. He was also fined 12,000 euros over the incident.
Gacinovic said later that it was an accident and that he did not blame the keeper.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
