Andros Townsend avoids injury after bizarre pitch roller incident in Thailand

The former England winger Andros Townsend has joked Stoke away “wasn’t so bad after all” following a bizarre incident in Thailand where he was run over by a pitch roller.

The ex-Tottenham and Crystal Palace attacker Townsend currently plays in Thai League 1 for PT Prachuap and made headlines on Saturday night when a clip emerged on social media which showed the 35-year-old being taken out before a fixture at Pattani.

Townsend was warming up when a member of staff at Pattani appeared to lose control of the pitch roller and it crashed into the 13-cap England international. The left leg of the Prachuap player briefly got stuck under the vehicle, but he did feature off the bench late on in the 3-0 win.

Regular ITV pundit Townsend later took to Instagram to make light of the incident, referencing one of his recent posts in which he contrasted a sun-drenched Thai away trip with previous visits to Stoke’s windswept stadium.

Townsend said on his Instagram story: “It turns out Stoke away wasn’t so bad after all. Swipe to see why.”

Another post described Townsend as ‘The King of Memes in Thai League history’ and he replied “trust me” with four laughing emojis.