Jens Lehmann has been told he was lucky to escape punishment after appearing to urinate behind his goal during Wednesday's 3–1 Champions League win over Unirea Urziceni. The Stuttgart goalkeeper jumped over the advertising hoardings and looked as if he was relieving himself before being interrupted by a Romanian counter-attack.
Luckily for Lehmann, the referee, Viktor Kassai, did not see the incident and could not book the former Arsenal and Germany goalkeeper for leaving the pitch without permission. And, while the Stuttgart management has told Lehmann he should have been given a yellow card, there was praise from the club's director of sport, Horst Heldt, for how the 40-year-old dealt with the situation. "I thought he handled it very expertly," he said. "It was a tricky situation. He could hardly run into the dressing room while play was going on and it reminded me of the Tour de France – sometimes there are simply no options."
Lehmann is not the first sportsman or woman to encounter problems when needing a toilet break during an event and Paula Radcliffe famously squatted down and relieved herself on the streets of London during the 2005 marathon. She still won the race by more than five minutes.
The French golfer Benjamin Herbert caused a stir at the Open at Birkdale in 2008 when he walked off the sixth fairway to take a leak – one French spectator saying he had "disgraced the nation" – while the US forward DaMarcus Beasley furtively urinated next to the bench while waiting to come on against Mexico at the 2002 World Cup.
Lehmann, meanwhile, has announced he is retiring at the end of the season but – as could be expected – he is refusing to go quietly. This week he accused the Stuttgart management of giving into "pubescent fans" when they sacked Markus Babbel as manager and he has already clashed with ball-boys and his team-mate Khalid Boulahrouz this season, ripping the sweat band off the Dutchman's head following a mistake.
Lehmann did not comment on his decision to leave the pitch during the game against Unirea Urziceni, saying only: "I was more nervous than I have been for a long time."