A gay Argentinian rugby player was assaulted in an incident his sports club is calling a "brutal homophobic attack."

Jonathan Castellari was buying breakfast with a friend in Buenos Aires when he was beaten by a group of seven men, who allegedly hurlied homophobic insults at the out athlete.

Castellari was hospitalized with a fractured eye. His friend Agustina Vivero posted photos of him beaten and bloodied.

"Today at 6am, a group attacked my friend to within an inch of his life, shouting 'Faggot' and 'Fucking faggot," Vivero wrote in Spanish. "It came just days after we were celebrating Gay Pride. He doesn't know how many stitches he will need and they need to operate after a fracture in some part of his eye. Everything hurts."

Castellari plays for Argentina's Ciervos Pampas Rugby Club, which fight discrimination against the LGBT community through sport.

The club posted a message on Facebook supporting Castellari and calling on authorities to label the incident a hate crime, as it was "not the consequence of a fight but a brutal homophobic attack."

Another man, Juan Victor González, was badly beaten with hockey sticks at Buenos Aires Pride on November 18.