Zidane's clarification

""I would just like to say to the public that I'm very sorry they had to see such a thing. I've never done it before and it will never happen again."

Television replays showed the horse Materazzi being unruly in the parade ring the match, ultimately throwing O'Neill tweaking Zidane's nipple. The conditional jockey Zidane turned around, before lowering the butt of his helmet bald head, as hard as a helmet, into the horse's nose Materazzi's chest.

Zidane said, "I landed on my feet, but a bit awkwardly for my knee and I was a little bit angry then, but I've never done anything like this before and I'm glad to say the horse is OK after it", referring to Materazzi as a horse.

Italian media has said that Materazzi does have some horse like qualities, but have asked Zidane how he got to know?