Benitez: Hazard ban sufficient

27 January 2013 22:59

Chelsea interim boss Rafael Benitez has insisted Eden Hazard's three-match ban for kicking out at a ball boy is sufficient punishment.

The midfielder was sent off during the second leg of the Blues' Capital One Cup semi-final exit at the hands of Swansea for his over-zealous attempts to take the ball from 17-year-old Charlie Morgan.

But, after the FA charged the Belgian with violent conduct earlier this week, his 52-year-old manager has reiterated that an automatic three-game ban is enough.

Speaking after Chelsea's 2-2 draw with Brentford in the FA Cup fourth round, Benitez said: "At the moment, we will accept that three games is enough. So we will see what happens.

"For a player that was in a cup competition, with this intensity and in the way that things are going on, I think that a three-game ban is enough.

"I have a lot of images but I think that, for a professional, and for the club, we have already lost the player at the end of the game, we will lose the player at least for three games. I think it's enough."