Nelson Oliveira revealed Tyrone Mings had apologised after suffering a horrific facial injury the on-loan Norwich City striker admitted could have left him blind.

Oliveira broke his nose in four places and required reconstructive surgery, after Mings stamped on the grounded forward during Reading's 0-0 Championship game at Aston Villa last week.

The Portugal international is now calling on the FA to investigate, although referee Geoff Eltringham failed to spot the incident at Villa Park.

'I'm not saying he did it on purpose but he could have avoided me 100pc. He texted me to apologise,' said Oliveira. 'At the time I hadn't seen the video. Football is an aggressive game but that is not football. It could have been much worse, I could be blind.

'I'm not criticising the referee because it's not my job. It's up to the FA to look at these things. 'If the same thing happened to Harry Kane what would happen? How would the FA look at it when his career could have been over? It's a question to ask people and the media. If this happens in Portugal they would look at it again. You see UFC fighters come off looking better than me.

'In the last two years he has stamped on the head of two players. The FA need to look at that.

'When you look at the video you can see he could avoid what he did. The normal movement of his body is your left foot then your right foot in front, so he stops the movement and is looking down and sees my face on the floor. He saw where I was.'

Oliveira is targeting a return to action later this month and is likely to need a special facemask to play following the ugly incident that prompted his wife to take to social media to criticise the on-loan Villa defender.

'It's not my job to say it was on purpose or the referee made a bad decision, I do not want to get involved in that,' said the striker. 'But the FA, the EFL or whoever need to look at that. In my country in Portugal they would look at it, for sure. I never remember that happening in Portugal in the last 100 years.

'They should look at it not to get justice because I don't care about that, but to set an example to the kids of this country who want to play for England or the big clubs.

'This is not a good example for them. I would not like my son to play in England and need to finish playing because someone stamped on his face when it could have been avoided.'