Robin van Persie suffers gruesome eye injury as Fenerbahce defeat Akhisar Belediyespor to go second

Former Manchester United and Arsenal striker Robin van Persie was forced off with eye injury while playing for Fenerbahce on Sunday evening.

The Dutchman starred as Fenerbahce overcame Akhisar Belediyespor to go second in the Turkish Superlig.

Van Persie scored the first goal of the evening for the Turkish giants, as they went on to secure a comfortable 3-1 win.

But Van Persie's evening was cut short after picking up a gruesome left eye injury.

The Dutchman was involved in a penalty area collision with his counterpart Abdulwahid Sissoko.

Sissoko could be seen to place himself between Van Persie and the ball, in attempt to dispossess the Dutch striker.

But the pair appeared to come together and the former United star was sent crashing to the turf.

Writhing around on the floor while holding his left eye, play was stopped as Van Persie received urgent treatment.

After being removed from the field on a stretcher, Van Persie could then be seen with a bandage pressed across his eye with traces of blood leaking from beneath.

Fenerbahce have since played down fears over the eye injury and have maintained the images looked much worse than they were.

'He received a blow to the eye and suffered a torn eyelid and bleeding,' club doctor Burak Kunduraciogl said.

'After the first intervention, we sent an ophthalmologist to the hospital to assess him.

'After the investigations we learned that nothing important happened. His condition is good,' he added.

It is a bad end to the week for the Dutchman who has recently been enjoying a strong spell for Fenerbahce.

The Turkish side are flying high in the league and are still brimming with confidence following their Europa League victory over Manchester United.

Fenerbahce emerged victorious over Van Persie's former employers on the European stage after goals from Moussa Sow and Jeremain Lens gave them a 2-1 win.

It was a revenge mission for Fenerbahce who, a week prior at Old Trafford, had been defeated by the Red Devils - despite Van Persie finding the back of the net against his old club.