Former England international Andy Carroll ‘broke a Premier League player’s cheekbone' during a pre-season camp with the victim later explaining how he'd never been hit so hard in his life.
Carroll, 36, is currently at sixth-tier Dagenham & Redbridge, having signed for the London club on a free transfer after leaving French outfit Bordeaux upon the expiration of his contract in June.
The striker reportedly turned down other offers from several clubs across Europe and told Sky Sports: "It doesn't matter the level, or anything, as long as I get on the pitch and play football, that's all that matters.
"Coming here and showing people I am just playing for the love of football rather than the money, and the level is something I wanted to do. This is something which could be fantastic. We have a project to get them out of non-league and back up the leagues."
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The 36-year-old is now in the twilight of his career, but in his prime, he led the line for England at Euro 2012 – scoring in a 3-2 win against Sweden during the group stage.
A year earlier, he had signed for Kenny Dalglish’s Liverpool for a then-club record fee of £35m, completing a move from boyhood club Newcastle United.
But things did not go entirely as planned with Carroll scoring just 11 goals in 58 games for the Reds before leaving for in 2013 following a successful loan spell at the Hammers during the 2012/13 campaign.
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And it was during his time at the East London club where he reportedly lost his cool in pre-season and broke the cheekbone of a teammate.
While on a pre-season tour of Germany, head coach Sam Allardyce allowed his players some downtime following an intense training session.
Several players, including Carroll, chose to spend the time in a local bar before hell broke loose.
Former West Ham and Wales centre-back James Collins opened up about the incident during an episode of Under The Cosh in 2024.
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Collins said: "We found this bar that looked half-decent. We were in this bar, p***ed, got a bit lively and Kev [Nolan] and Andy started having an argument about something.
“They were really arguing, I got in the middle and told them to leave it out.
"Andy's gone, you could see his eyes are gone, he wanted to chin someone. I thought, I'll have a go. I'm not sure if Andy will tell the same story as I was p***ed!
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"I swung for Andy, missed him by a foot and he has gone and hit me on the cheek. I've been hit a couple of times, never so hard in all my life.
“It didn't knock me out but I took a knee. Noble is in the middle of us, it's pandemonium.
"We stood up, had a pint, shook hands and got on with it. Don't get hit by Andy Carroll! He is one strong geezer."
When telling the story on That Peter Crouch podcast Collins added: “I can only describe this night as like The Hangover. I vaguely remember Nobes (Mark Noble) walking around with a sword and like honestly… just one of them nights like, ‘What is going on here?’".
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Collins also claimed that Carroll's blow broke his cheekbone.
Topics: Andy Carroll, Premier League, Football, Injury, Non-League
Luke Davies