Andros Townsend has seen enough awkward away days in English football to make a decent list, but none of them involved a grass-maintenance roller passing over him at half-time.
The former Tottenham winger, capped 13 times by England, was warming up during PT Prachuap’s Thai Premier League match against Pattani when the machine struck him. Townsend escaped with bruises and knocks, although he feared his ankle had been badly damaged.
Quick facts
- Townsend was involved in the incident during the interval of PT Prachuap’s game with Pattani.
- Two pitch rollers were operating at either side of the field as players prepared to warm up.
- The 13-cap former England international suffered no serious injury.
- He said his children initially believed footage of the moment had been created by artificial intelligence.
Speaking about the episode for the first time, Townsend said he had not seen the vehicle approaching. He recalled noticing the rollers before the warm-up and wondering why they were being used, having never encountered such a sight during his career.
Then the players were called out and his attention moved elsewhere. The next time Townsend registered the machine, he said, he was underneath it.
“I thought my ankle was going to break,” he said, describing the moment as frightening. He was fortunate, he added, to fall in the right way as the roller went over him, preventing more serious consequences.
Townsend said there had been only a few bruises and bumps, leaving him relieved rather than laid up. Watching the footage back still makes him shudder, he said, because of what might have happened.
When he sent the clip to his children, they thought it was AI-generated. Townsend said he had to spend around 10 minutes convincing them that the incident was real.
There is at least room now for the sort of gallows humour familiar to anyone who has survived a difficult fixture. Sharing an image from the video, Townsend joked that away trips to Stoke had not been so bad after all.
