It’s hardly the way to treat your host, but Tony Blair always plays to win. The sports-loving prime minister tackled his Italian counterpart so hard in a “friendly” soccer game at their recent holiday get-together that Silvio Berlusconi needed hospital treatment for an injured knee, newspapers reported on Saturday.

Berlusconi is still limping from the clash with Blair at a five-a-side game with aides on the lawn at the Italian’s mansion in Sardinia earlier this month, they said. But at least the right-wing Italian leader could see the funny side of his tough tackle by the centre-left Blair. “It was the left knee”, he reportedly told other patients at hospital. “I’ve always had problems with the left!”

Newspapers gleefully reported the incident under headlines like “Bruiser Blair” and “Chopper Blair”. One said Blair had personified differences in European soccer styles. “It will reinforce the stereotype of clumsy English footballers trying to shackle more cultured continentals”, the Sunday Times commented. Blair’s Downing Street office declined to comment. “It was a private holiday, we don’t discuss it”, one official said.