Fans in disbelief after seeing what happened when Ion Nicolaescu blew his nose during Heerenveen match

Heerenveen's Ion Nicolaescu suffered a gruesome injury after the Moldovan forward blew his nose during their KNVB Cup round of 16 clash against amateur side Quick Boys.

It was another historic night for Quick Boys, who overcome the odds on Thursday night to secure their place in the quarter-final stage of this season's KNVB Beker, also known as the Dutch Cup.

After beating top-flight sides Almere City and Fortuna Sittard in the earlier rounds, Thomas Duivenvoorden's side extended their fairytale run in the competition with a memorable 3-2 win.

Neville Ogidi Nwankwo, Milan Zonneveld and Levi van Duijn got on the scoresheet for Quick Boys, while Heerenveen struggled in spells.

In fact, the Eredivisie side failed to register a single shot in the first-half, although the introduction of Moldova's all-time leading goalscorer, Ion Nicolaescu, helped matters as he scored just three minutes after coming on.

It was a mixed night for Nicolaescu, who suffered a nasty swollen eye – just moments after blowing his nose in the latter stages of Thursday's clash at the Sportpark Nieuw Zuid.

After a heavy collision, the Moldovan striker walked away with a bruised cheek but as you can see from the footage below, things escalated when his eye popped out of the socket.

Former boxing champion George Foreman once claimed it was the “cardinal rule” to never blow your nose between rounds.

And back in 2010 – after Joe Rogan suggested Demian Maia’s swollen eye in his UFC middleweight bout with Anderson Silva was due to the fighter blowing his nose – Dr. Johnny Benjamin explained the situation.

Speaking to MMA Junkie, he said: "As with all fighters, Maia’s eye socket and surrounding tissues have a great deal of very vascular fat to cushion and protect the eyeball.

"After a fighter’s eye and the face around it have been properly tenderized by a four- to five-ounce MMA glove, the blood vessels – especially the veins – are damaged. Some of the veins are completely torn and some are just leaky.

"This vascular injury and direct trauma to the soft tissue causes the puffiness, swelling and the very familiar “mouse” under the eye.

"The acts of blowing your nose, grunting, straining during exercise (commonly lifting weights), pushing for a bowel movement, etc. increases venous blood pressure. This physiological event is called a Valsalva maneuver."

Back in 2022, Mark Martin's eye popped out of his socket after he blew his nose during a Professional Fighters League (PFL) bout with Dilano Taylor.

The injury occurred after Martin was struck in the left eye and blew his nose. After the fight was stopped, Martin was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a fractured orbital bone.