The 33-year-old was substituted at 2-2 in Spezia’s Serie A home game against Sassuolo and two minutes later he was shown a yellow card.
And it didn’t take long before the Swedish national team midfielder had to leave the field. Ekdal went brusquely into a duel with the Norwegian Kristian Thorstvedt, received his second yellow card and was sent off after only a quarter of a game.
Although Spezia had to finish the match with one less man, the team persevered and the match ended 2–2.
Spezia’s other Swede, Emil Holm, spent the entire match on the bench.
In three league games this season, there has been a total of 45 minutes on the pitch for Ekdal, who joined Spezia last summer after previously being at Sampdoria.