LUIS SUAREZ HAS promised the “bad” days are behind him ahead of his Barcelona debut on Saturday in the first El Clasico of the season.
The Uruguay international was handed a four-month ban in June for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup.
He had been reprimanded on two previous occasions for similar offences after biting PSV’s Otman Bakkal in 2010 and Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic in 2013 and Suarez admits he has a problem, but believes he is on the “right path” to overcoming the issue.
“I think all the bad things I have been through are in the past,” Suarez told The Guardian. “I believe I am on the right path now, dealing with the people who can help me, the right kind of people.
“Everyone has different ways of defending themselves. In my case, the pressure and tension came out in that way.
“There are other players who react by breaking someone’s leg, or smashing someone’s nose across their face. What happened with Chiellini is seen as worse. I understand why biting is seen so badly.”
However, Suarez – who could make his first competitive Barca outing in Saturday’s much-anticipated Clasico encounter with Real Madrid – remains unrepentant over his row with Patrice Evra in October 2011, for which he was banned for eight games and fined £40,000 after being found guilty of racial abuse.
“I know I was wrong with the biting and the diving but I was accused of racism without any proof,” he added. “There were lots of cameras, but no evidence. It hurts me the most that it was my word against theirs.”
