Craig Bellamy has been charged with violent conduct by the Football Association after the Cardiff forward's clash with Swansea midfielder Jonathan de Guzman in Saturday's south Wales derby.

Bellamy appeared to catch the Dutchman with his arm as he ran past him during the second half of Swansea's 3-0 victory.

The incident was not seen by referee Andre Marriner and his fellow officials, and an FA statement read: "Cardiff City's Craig Bellamy has been charged by The FA for violent conduct following an incident which was not seen by the match officials but caught on video."

Bellamy has until 6pm on Tuesday to respond to the charge.

Should the former Wales striker accept the charge he will face a three-match ban and miss Tuesday's Premier League meeting with Aston Villa, the weekend's FA Cup clash with Wigan and a further league fixture against Hull.

But, speaking prior to confirmation of the FA charge, his manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer felt there was no need for any action to be taken.

The Norwegian felt Marriner had seen the incident, and suggested De Guzman had over-reacted.

He said: "For me it was absolutely nothing. If that was me going down like that, my Dad would have had something to say.

"But then again you can look at (Angel) Rangel when he kicks (Wilfried) Zaha in the first half. Nothing is mentioned about that. But that's just football.

"The referee saw it, they just ran into each other. I have spoken to Craig, we speak about loads of things and it is just one of those things when you run into each other. No problem."

The decision to charge Bellamy came after a three-man panel of former elite referees reviewed footage of the clash and agreed unanimously that it constituted violent conduct and a sending-off offence.

Swansea head coach Garry Monk, unsurprisingly, rejected Solskjaer's criticism of De Guzman, but was unconcerned as to whether any disciplinary action was taken.

"It isn't our problem. I didn't notice it at the time," he said. "I just saw that Jonathan and Kim (Bo-kyung) were down and Ashley Williams had kicked the ball out of play.

"Jonathan isn't complaining about anything. If anyone else wants to take it any further then that is up to them.

"I don't think Jonathan made too much of it. He took a blow to the back of the head. I think it's off the mark to say he made a meal out of it. He's happy and he didn't complain to me about anything.

"We'll just get on with our job and let Cardiff worry about it."