Malika Zidane wants Materazzi's balls

According to today's Mirror, Malika Zidane has warned the Italian defender that she wants his "balls chopped off" for his part in her son's sending off. "I am disgusted by what I have heard," she is reported to have told friends. "I praise my son for defending his family's honour. No one should be subjected to such foul insults on or off the football pitch and I don't care if it was a World Cup final," she continued.

Mrs Zidane was, of course, reacting to the suggestion that Materazzi had branded her a "terrorist whore", a charge the Italian defender emphatically denies. "I categorically did not call Zidane a terrorist and certainly didn't mention his mother," he gulped nervously, scanning the horizon for an angry old lady wielding a sharp knife and a plate. But while Materazzi has refused to divulge what he did say to Zidane, we may find out when the former French captain speaks publicly on the subject the incident for the first time tonight.