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Burnley's players have been rallying around Hannibal Mejbri after the former Manchester United player conceded a late penalty against Liverpool.
The Clarets looked to be heading for a creditable draw before Mejbri handled the ball in the box, giving Mohamed Salah the opportunity to claim all three points from the spot.
Mejbri looked utterly disconsolate but did not protest the decision, and Salah slammed the ball into the net to maintain the Reds' 100 per cent start to the season.
Taking to Instagram after the game, Hannibal wrote: "Gutted, doesn’t sum up my feelings. The lads were brilliant today."
Despite costing his side a point, Burnley's players were quick to pick the 22-year-old up. Burnley captain Josh Cullen wrote: "Head up mate, we go again," while Josh Laurent and Kyle Walker commented love-heart emojis.
The players' comments came after Burnley boss Scott Parker refused to blame the youngster. "I don’t really want to discuss the penalty to be honest," Parker said. “The ball came at him at possibly 70-80mph from three yards away, so I can’t fault Hanni at all.
“I think my biggest takeaway of that decision is that maybe we’ve got to look at coaching players to block balls with their arms behind their backs now. That’s new to us all but it’s where the game is.”
Despite seemingly being disappointed with the current rules around handball, Parker admitted that the decision to award Liverpool a penalty was the correct one.
"I've seen disappointments in my time and my career," Parker said on Sky Sports. "At times, we survived like our lives depended on it today. We knew we had to give that.
"The overriding factor here is that everything we set about to be today, I am immensely proud of the players. The game ends in a real heartbreaking way for us. It is what it is.
"We just fell a little bit short with the last-minute penalty. We needed to deny space, that was critical for us, and we did that. We defended very, very well.
"We didn't look much of a threat going forward but it is what it is. We are trying to get a result and we are trying to survive it is just a shame the way it ended.
"It is handball. In the law of it, it is handball. We will have to change in the technique of defending things with hands behind the back. But really proud of the team."
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