Jose Mourinho was left with egg on his face as he took a tumble after conducting a ceremonial start in an international professional ice hockey league fixture.

The garlanded former Chelsea and Manchester United boss was a surprise guest at the Kontinental Hockey League match between Avangard and SKA in the Moscow region of Balashikha.

But shortly after dropping the ice hockey puck to get proceedings under way, the 56-year-old lost his footing on the red carpet and fell on his back.

The KHL had posted a series of pictures of Mourinho, sacked by United in mid-December as they sat 19 points adrift of Premier League leaders Liverpool at the time, taking in the surroundings and greeting players.

It is not the first time Mourinho has taken an awkward fall, with a video of the Portuguese going viral when he buckled while attempting to jump over a rope barrier at Wembley shortly before England's 2-1 defeat to Spain in September.

Mourinho made light of that incident as he later told a press conference while still United boss: "I did it on purpose so (the media) could speak a little bit about myself."

ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Press Association Sport staff');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '927b2213-302f-4854-a059-d35a308537ca');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:football,paservice:sport:uk,paservice:viral,paservice:viral:sport');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story-enriched');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'The fallen one \u2013 Mourinho takes embarrassing tumble at Russian ice hockey match'});