Andros Townsend Relives Terrifying Pitch Roller Incident in Thailand

Andros Townsend has relived the “terrifying” moment he was run over by a pitch roller in Thailand – and somehow walked away with little more than bumps and bruises.

The 35-year-old former England winger, now playing for PT Prachuap in Thai League 1, was going through his warm-up for a match in Pattani on Saturday when chaos suddenly cut across the routine. A member of staff appeared to lose control of a heavy roller working on the surface. Within seconds, Townsend’s left leg was trapped underneath.

For a player whose career has already been littered with serious injuries, it could have been catastrophic. Instead, he was back on his feet, finished the warm-up and even came off the bench late on in a 3-0 win.

Speaking about the incident for the first time on Piers Morgan's Football Uncensored, Townsend admitted the footage still makes his stomach churn.

“Every time I see it, I'm cringing, I'm in disbelief,” he said. “It's horrible to watch back and to see what could have been, thankfully I was fortunate I did manage to fall onto the floor at the right time, so nothing snapped as the roller went over me.”

The images show how close it came. His left leg is caught, the roller edging over him as team-mates and staff rush in panic. Townsend said he escaped with “a couple of bumps and bruises”, but the fear in the moment was real.

He had already clocked that something was off even before the accident.

“I remember thinking to myself, 'I've never seen that before in my career, what are they doing?'” he said of the two rollers working on either side of the pitch during the warm-up. “But we got called to warm-up. Didn't think anything of it.

The next I saw him was when I was literally underneath him and thankfully no serious damage. A couple of bumps and bruises but managed to walk away unscathed, luckily.

What saved him? A mix of instinct and help from those around him.

“It was quite heavy, but I was able to kind of lift [it], force it off me,” Townsend explained. “So when it was completely on me, I was getting crushed a little bit.

“I was able to get my left arm up and relieve some of the pressure, and then I was able to get my team-mates around me who were able to lift it, and I was able to squeeze out but at that moment where it was crushing my left leg, it was quite terrifying, I must say.”

His team-mates were stunned he tried to carry on as if nothing had happened.

“They were very surprised that I continued the warm-up. They were telling me to go to the doctor,” he said.

The fear went straight to the parts of his body that have already been through the surgeon’s room. Townsend has had operations on both his left ankle and left knee. As the roller pressed down, his mind raced to the worst-case scenario.

“I thought, either my left ankle was going to snap or my left knee is going to snap. I thought I was done. I was very fortunate that I was able to hobble away and recover within a few minutes.”

For a player who has fought back from multiple setbacks, this felt like another test of his resolve. He made it clear this freak accident is “definitely not going to stop me from continuing.”

On Instagram, Townsend chose gallows humour over self-pity, linking the incident to a recent post where he had compared a sun-drenched Thai away day with the far less glamorous experience of playing at Stoke’s Bet365 Stadium.

“It turns out Stoke away wasn't so bad after all,” he wrote.

A career that has already taken him from Tottenham to Crystal Palace, from England caps to Thai League 1, now has one more surreal chapter – the day he was run over by a pitch roller and still made it on to the pitch.