City boss Stuart Pearce refused to discuss details of the incident today but confirmed the matter is now subject to an internal disciplinary hearing which will be held the week after the season ends.

Dabo told L’Equipe: “I am disfigured. My left eye has been affected. I believe he put his fingers in my eyes. I am suffering. But I don’t remember much because his first punch made me lose consciousness.

“I went to turn around, he hit me and knocked me out. He acted like a coward, it wasn’t a fair fight.”

The pair exchanged fierce challenges which led to them squaring up before, Dabo claims, Barton launched his attack.

Dado told The Sun: “I just pushed him away and turned my back to walk off. That’s when he hit me.

“I really don’t remember exactly what happened but I’ve been told by all my team-mates he hit me from behind, a right hook which hit me on the temple and knocked me out for a few seconds.

“As I started to fall he jumped on top of me, held my head and punched me twice more in the face. Apparently when I was on the floor he again punched me before being pulled off. When I came round, and it can only have been a matter of seconds, there was blood everywhere.

“I was spitting blood and my eye was clouded over and when I realised what had happened – I wanted to go after him.”

The former Lazio player added: “When I woke up this morning I looked at myself in the mirror with my face all swollen up and I looked like the Elephant Man. I’m a big guy and if it had been a face-to-face fight he would have known about it.”