Italy forward Graziano Pelle has been kicked out of the national squad over his angry reaction to being substituted against Spain when he refused a handshake from coach Giampiero Ventura.

The Italian football federation (FIGC) said in a statement that the 31-year-old had been excluded from the squad which will travel to Skopje to face Macedonia in their Group G World Cup qualifier tomorrow.

Pelle, who has already apologised for his tantrum, was taken off on the hour after an ineffective display in the World Cup qualifier which ended in a 1-1 draw on Thursday.

“The coach, in agreement with the FIGC, has decided to exclude Graziano Pelle for disrespectful behaviour when he was substituted,” the FIGC said.

“To be part of the national team involves the sharing of values which are worthy of the national team, starting with respect towards the staff, team-mates and fans.”

Ventura had initially appeared to play down the incident even before the former Southampton player, who is now based with Chinese club Shandong Luneng, had apologised.

“Pelle was angry, I think this was not so much because of the substitution as the way we had played up to that point,” he said after the game.

“It’s part of football, it’s something I’ve seen many times in my career. But when you wear the Italy shirt, you need to be careful.”

Pelle admitted on Instragram that he had “messed things up.”

“It was unacceptable behaviour, firstly against the coach and also, towards my team-mates, who have always shown me to have important values in this fantastic Italy group we belong to.

“Like any great mistake, I accept the consequences. And it is only right that I take responsibility. I must offer my apologies from my heart to everyone.”

Veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was also prepared to forgive and forget, he said before Pelle was excluded.

“He’s a great guy and in the cold light of day, I’m sure he will realise he was wrong,” he said.

“If he apologises for his behaviour, we will be happy to embrace him. It was wrong but these things happen in such tense matches.”

On Friday, Buffon, who was making his 164th appearance for the Azzurri, gifted visitors Spain the lead after mistiming his tackle when rushing out of his box to stop Vitolo.

The Spaniard was left free to put the ball into an empty net on 55 minutes. Daniele de Rossi equalised for Italy with a late penalty.

Vitolo confessed he wasn’t expecting Buffon’s error at the Juventus Stadium.

“The truth is in the first half we were pretty comfortable,” he told reporters.

“Buffon is a great goalkeeper. I wasn’t expecting his error and he was not expecting me to get through. I had the chance to add a second goal as well, but it didn’t go well.”

De Rossi, who plays for Roma, said: “The best goalkeeper in history has shown that he is human, we had all begun to think he was a machine.

“Of course, it would have been better if he had made that mistake while playing for Juventus.”

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