Smiling Everton duo Idrissa Gueye and Michael Keane bury the hatchet with joke boxing fight after furious on-field altercation at Old Trafford - which saw Senegalese sent off for SLAPPING his own team-mate

Everton team-mates Idrissa Gueye and Michael Keane appear to have put Monday night’s extraordinary on-field altercation at Old Trafford behind them, after sparring off in a joke boxing match in training.

Gueye, 36, was given a straight red card 13 minutes into Everton's 1-0 victory over Manchester United after slapping his own team-mate Keane, an incident match-winner Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall later branded a 'moment of madness'.

After being berated for a careless pass, the Senegalese midfielder confronted Keane before raising his hand and striking him in the face, drawing a straight red card from referee Tony Harrington. 

Gueye, who has since apologised and taken accountability in a grovelling post to Keane on social media, was pictured with the centre-half in high spirits at Finch Farm on Thursday.

'All love,' the Merseyside club posted on social media platform X, accompanying the message with a blue love heart emoji.

The pair also featured in a light-hearted video on social media, which displayed the two Premier League stars pretending to box in a joke fight at the training complex.

Despite going down to 10 men early in the game, the Toffees rallied together to stage a surprise 1-0 victory over the Red Devils, taking the lead through Dewsbury-Hall in the 29th minute before holding out for the clean sheet. 

Dewsbury-Hall and Toffees boss David Moyes revealed after the match that Gueye had apologised in the dressing room, and the Senegalese star extended his regret in a message posted to social media on Monday night.

'I want to apologise first to my team-mate Michael Keane,' his Instagram post read. 

'I take full responsibility for my reaction. I also apologise to my teammates, the staff, the fans and the club. 

'What happened does not reflect who I am or the values I stand for. Emotions can run high, but nothing justifies such behaviour. I'll make sure it never happens again.'

Moyes was full of praise for his team after the game and even claimed he 'likes his players fighting' in reference to the fierce altercation.

'If nothing happened, I don't think anyone in the stadium would have been surprised,' the Scotsman said of the sending off. 'I thought the referee could have taken a bit longer to think about it. 

'I got told that the rules of the game that if you slap your own player, you could be in trouble. But there's another side to it: I like my players fighting each other, if someone didn't do the right action. 

'If you want that toughness and resilience to get a result, you want someone to act on it. I'm disappointed we get the sending off. But we've all been footballers, we get angry with our team-mates. 

'He's apologised for the sending off, he's praised the players and thanked them for it and apologised for what happened.'

With Gueye now suspended, the Toffees are gearing up to host Newcastle United at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday evening, having climbed to 11th in the Premier League table after beating Manchester United.