Roma midfielder Renato Sanches was left red-faced as manager Jose Mourinho decided to take him off just 18 minutes after he had come on in Sunday's defeat to Bologna.
Mourinho's side were 1-0 at half-time, prompting him to make a change and bring on the Portuguese.
They conceded a second just four minutes after the restart and Mourinho had soon seen enough of Sanches.
Sanches couldn't hide his disbelief as he saw his number raised just 18 minutes into the half.
The 26-year-old looked for confirmation that it wasn't a mistake before slowly making his way off the pitch.
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Renato Sanches was stunned after being substituted after just 18 minutes on Sunday
In his post-match interview, Mourinho explained: 'with Renato we live in a situation of hope, we always think that space, certain responsibilities, adrenaline are the ideal way to help him make the leap. He has emotional scars, he has many fears due to past injuries.'
'He works at low intensity, on everything we do. He improves in volume and in workload but never in intensity.
'In the last match against Sheriff he had given us 60 minutes of hope, and today I thought about inserting him because the team could have benefited from his quality. But then I realized I had made a mistake, because he wasn't ready to make this leap in such an intense setting.
Jose Mourinho explained that a lack of intensity was the reason for the substitution
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'I'm sorry… The last time I did this to a player before Renato was Matic, and I'm terribly sorry about this but today I couldn't leave the team with a player who had become frustrated. I had to make this decision.'
Sanches joined Roma on loan from PSG in the summer and the club will have the option to make the move permanent.