VETERAN striker Dion Dublin has rounded on Bobo Balde over the horror tackle that left Leicester kid James Wesolowski with a shattered right leg.
The Foxes veteran hitman and his team-mates were sickened by the Celtic defender's challenge in Tuesday's goalless friendly at the Walkers Stadium.
And Dublin reckons Balde lost the rag because he couldn't cope with City's twin tower attack.
Balde and Stanislav Varga were given a torrid time by Dublin and his giant sidekick Mark De Vries in a bad- tempered 'friendly' which saw 17-year-old Aussie Wesolowski taken to hospital for surgery to insert a pin in his shin.
Dublin reckons Balde's tackle may have been an outpouring of frustration as he struggled to get to grips with Craig Levein's high and mighty frontline.
The 36-year-old said:'I think Balde was getting frustrated. That's what happens when you don't get things the way you are used to getting them.
'He was up against two lads of 6ft2in and 6ft4in and that's a different game altogether' The tackle was unfortunate but I don't want to talk about it too much. I'll let the manager do that.
'But Celtic struggled. Big Mark was probably the best player on the pitch along with Gareth Williams.
'It was a good old fashioned ding-dong and it was great to be a part of - two big lads at centre-half versus two big lads at centre-forward - and the atmosphere was good.
'We did OK, especially considering we were up against two players who play in Europe every year and do a half decent job at that level.'
Former Hearts full-back Alan Maybury was also upset over Balde's challenge. He said: 'James has just joined the first-team squad so it's a real sickener for him. 'He's a typical Aussie - he throws himself into tackles and 50-50s. Maybe if he knew a little bit more about Balde he would have thought twice about flying into a 50-50.'
Leicester's performance has come as a timely boost for manager Craig Levein and Maybury believes they were robbed of a result to match.
He said: 'We should have won but it's all about fitness at this stage. I knew we had to impose ourselves on Celtic and not let them play and that's exactly what we did.'
