Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini banned for 3 games for Ryan Shawcross headbutt

Marouane Fellaini has escaped with just a three-match ban for the headbutt which shocked football.

The Belgian clashed with Ryan Shawcross Three times during Everton’s draw at Stoke on Saturday.

Boss David Moyes said: “We were always going to accept the punishment we got. Marouane knows he did wrong and we take the three games. We apologise again and now just hope to move on.”

The Toffees manager immediately condemned the 6ft 5in star and fined him two weeks’ wages of £150,000.

Fellaini will now miss the league clashes with West Ham, Wigan and Chelsea but will be available again for the trip to Newcastle on January 2.

The midfielder appeared to swing an elbow when backing into Shawcross at one corner, he also seemed to shove the defender in the face and blatantly used his head to flatten the Potters ace.

Although ref Mark Halsey missed the incidents at the time, they were picked up by TV replays.

Everton feared Fellaini could be banned for 9 games but an FA hearing charged him with just the 59th-minute headbutt.

They took no action against the other two incidents as Halsey deemed neither to be violent conduct.