GIF: Referee Chris Foy takes ball square in the face; forced to leave game

Referee Chris Foy was simply minding his business in Saturday's match between Newcastle and Swansea City, overseeing proceedings just over a minute after blowing the opening whistle.

Then Jonjo Shelvey and Fabricio Coloccini combined to do this to him:

[Courtesy: Sportsnet]

Poor guy. 

In truth, that type of negative outcome is almost a foregone conclusion when two people akin to Lord Voldemort (Shelvey) and Sideshow Bob (Coloccini) are involved in the same incident.

Foy was forced to leave the match later in the opening half, and was replaced by fourth official Anthony Taylor.

The latter proceeded to issue a yellow card to Newcastle's Dan Gosling seconds after taking control of the match. 

Talk about a substitute making an immediate impact.