Former referee Dermot Gallagher expects Zlatan Ibrahimovic to be in hot water over his elbow on Bournemouth defender Tyrone Mings in Saturday's Premier League clash.
The Football Association is awaiting the report from referee Kevin Friend, due on Monday, before deciding whether to take action against the Manchester United striker.
Mings could also be in trouble over an incident moments before when, in jumping over a prone Ibrahimovic, the defender trod on his head.
If his actions were deemed deliberate, and if neither Friend nor his fellow officials saw the incident, then Mings could face retrospective action.
Gallagher told BBC Radio Five Live's Sportsweek programme: "I think that's the most difficult of the two to judge for the reason that only he knows what his actions were.
"The pictures don't look good and the FA will obviously look at that and process it as they see right. But it's very difficult to judge what his intent was."
Gallagher was in no doubt about Ibrahimovic, though, saying: "The pictures do him no favours whatsoever.
"That will definitely be one that the FA will look at, they'll speak to the officials. Obviously they didn't (see it) because if they'd seen it they would have acted, there's no doubt about that."
Press Association Sport understands the FA has been gathering all available footage of Saturday's incidents.
If the officials confirm they did not see the Ibrahimovic and Mings flare-ups, then the cases will go to the review panel that decides on unseen incidents.
Comprised of three ex-referees that do not confer or consult, they come back one by one with their decision, with a unanimous view required for action to be taken.
Both Ibrahimovic and Mings protested their innocence, but the man coming in for most criticism after the game was referee Friend.
As well as not taking action after either incident, Friend then appeared to forget he had already booked Bournemouth's Andrew Surman when he showed him a second yellow card for shoving Ibrahimovic in the aftermath before belatedly brandishing a red.
Press Association Sport has had confirmation that Friend did join fellow referee Anthony Taylor, who has also been criticised for his performance on Saturday, on the latter's stag do in Marbella.
It is understood the pair had both received permission to go from the Professional Game Match Officials Limited and returned to the UK early this week.
Taylor awarded a penalty to Burnley during their 3-2 defeat by Swansea for handball when the offender was Clarets striker Sam Vokes.
Gallagher would not approve of either being taken off match duties as a punishment.
He said: "What you have to realise is that every referee is bitterly upset if they make a mistake.
"It's no good saying to someone, 'I'm not going to give you a match'. If someone misses a penalty you don't kick him out of the team the next week, you have to make sure that next time he takes a penalty he takes it correctly.
"It's about getting the best out of somebody not destroying their confidence. I don't think it does them any good to publicly denounce them. It doesn't do the Premier League any good because they're good referees, they wouldn't be there if they weren't the best."
Source: PA
