A warm-up drill turned into one seriously bizarre close call
A freak accident before the big game! British footballer Andros Townsend was warming up with PT Prachuap at halftime against Pattani FC in Thailand when a routine passing drill suddenly became anything but routine.
The former England international stepped outside the practice area while attempting a pass and did not see a motorised pitch roller coming toward him. The machine knocked Townsend down and drove up his legs nearly to his waist before the grounds staff driver stopped, jumped off and tried to lift it away from him.
sports
Yes, that really happened.
Read the reporting and follow Townsend and PT Prachuap after one of the strangest warm-up incidents we've seen.
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Somehow, Townsend avoided serious injury, got back up and continued warming up. The 35-year-old later entered as a late substitute as PT Prachuap went on to beat Pattani FC 3–0. Pitch roller first, football second. Quite the afternoon.
Townsend later made light of the whole thing on Instagram, writing, “Turns out Stoke away wasn’t so bad after all.” The joke was a nod to Stoke City’s longtime reputation in English football as a particularly unforgiving away trip. After getting caught under a pitch roller in Thailand, apparently the comparison writes itself.
The fact that Townsend was able to get back on his feet and eventually play makes the footage no less unnerving. It is one of those clips that barely registers as real on the first watch.
Watch Andros Townsend’s Pitch-Roller Warm-Up Incident in Thailand
The footage shows the freak halftime warm-up incident before PT Prachuap’s 3–0 win over Pattani FC.
The incident is also shown in the Instagram reel shared by Real World Awareness | AW9SOME.
Source: Reuters.
