Aaron Connolly went off injured following a shuddering collision with opposing goalkeeper Angus Gunn as Hull City were beaten 2-1 at home by Norwich City.
Jon Rowe and Christian Fassnacht lifted Norwich to their first win of 2024 as the hosts missed a chance to move into the Sky Bet Championship play-offs.
Fassnacht came off the bench to net in the 88th minute and while Tyler Morton pulled one back in added-on time, Norwich held on for the final few moments to record a 2-1 win – their first in five matches.
The Canaries now sit just one point and place behind seventh-placed Hull, who only really sprang into action in the final half hour at the MKM Stadium.
Though his night only lasted 15 minutes, Connolly was subject to two bruising challenges, the first coming courtesy of his international teammate Shane Duffy where the Irish centre-half was fortunate to avoid a booking after clattering into the Hull attacker.
Shortly afterwards, Connolly's night was brought to an end after he was knocked to the ground in a sickening challenge with Norwich keeper Angus Gunn.
Chasing after a high, looping ball, an unprepared Connolly was caught flush in the face by the arm of the charging Gunn, who headed the ball clear as the Galway man hit the ground with a ferocious dunt.
Hull manager Liam Rosenior was perplexed as to the decision by the referee to award the free-kick against the stricken Irish striker
"I can understand why the goalkeeper's come out, I don't know if you can punish him because they're both going for the ball but it's clearly our free-kick at the least," he said.
"For us to be penalised for that pretty much sums up how I feel the refereeing decisions have gone against us this season. I thought his performance helped them in every aspect of the game.
"We wanted to play football, we wanted to restart the game, they wanted to slow the game down and make tactical fouls and the referee bought every single one."
Connolly, who has enjoyed something of a rennaissance this season with eight league goals, was accompanied off the pitch soon after by the Hull medical team.
