Francesco Totti, the AS Roma forward, has moved to ease tensions before the Italian club’s potentially explosive Champions League tie against Manchester United tomorrow by apologising to one of the victims of the violence that marred last season’s meeting between the teams at the Olympic Stadium.

Greater Manchester Police have been put on high alert for the game at Old Trafford after crowd trouble at both legs of last season’s quarter-final. But in an extraordinary move, Totti has sent a personal video message to Carly Lyes, 23, who was allegedly hit on the head by Italian police when violence flared in Rome in March.

Totti, accompanied on the video by Damiano Tommasi, a teammate, said: “We would like to apologise for the treatment you received in Rome last season and hope it has not damaged the opinion that you and your fellow supporters have of Rome. We would like to invite you to the Olympic Stadium for the game later this year and treat you as our guest.”