A pig’s head was thrown onto the pitch in one of football’s biggest derbies – more than two decades after one was famously launched at Luis Figo during a game.

Police were said to be investigating the grisly incident that occurred as Corinthians were playing arch-rivals Palmeiras in Brazil’s Serie A on Monday night.

The pig’s head was thrown at Palmeiras’ Raphael Veiga while he was taking a corner before Corinthians’ Yuri Alberto stepped in by kicking it off the pitch.

Credit: geglobo/X

“I almost broke my foot,” Alberto told Globo Esporte afterwards. “I thought it was something else, a cushion, but it was a pig’s head, I almost hurt myself.”

Two people were reportedly arrested over the incident before being released without charge due to a lack of evidence amid an ongoing investigation into how the offending item was smuggled into Corinthians’ Neo Quimica Arena.

The episode occurred 22 years after a similar one during a game between Barcelona and Real Madrid following Figo’s defection from the former to the latter – arguably the most controversial transfer in football history.

Monday night’s copycat incident appeared to be linked to “pig” having been for decades used as an insult used against Palmeiras by their rivals.

So much so that, in 2016, the latter club decided to embrace the moniker by officially adopting Gobbato the pig as their second mascot, alongside Periquito the parakeet.

Palmeiras fans had previously also made light of the insult, most famously at a game against Santos in 1986 at which they responded to chants of “pig” by shouting: “Come On Pig!! Come On Pig!! Olé Olé Olé…”, and, “Go Piiiig....”

The nickname was further popularised shortly afterwards when a Brazilian sports magazine published an issue with a picture of Palmeiras midfielder Jorginho Putinatti holding a pig on the front cover.