Michael Duignan believes Galway's Adrian Tuohy should have seen red for jabbing his hurl into the groin of Limerick's Barry Murphy.
The defender was shown a yellow card for the incident by referee Cathal McAllister during a bad-tempered encounter that saw Limerick clinch promotion to Division 1A.
"To me it's absolutely despicable," the Offaly All-Ireland winner told Allianz League Sunday.
"A belt into the testicles like that... You might give a lad a belt into the stomach but hurling people don't do that.
"Amazingly, Cathal McAllister goes over to the All-Ireland referee, Fergal Horgan, on the line and asked him if he saw it.
"He obviously saw something, because he gave him the card. How can he give a yellow card? What sort of an example are we showing?
"We all played the game hard and there would be belts given, but that sort of an incident - and I had a bad injury in that area, and my young lad did as well - is not nice. It's life-changing."
Anthony Daly agreed, and said other players were fortunate not to be sent off as well.
"There was an incident before half-time that wasn't clearly caught," he said.
"There were a lot of helmets pulled, a bit of belting.
"Very lucky there wasn't red cards shown there today.
"There was a lot at stake but that's OTT and Adrian Tuohy is very lucky there.
