Andros Townsend's Bizarre Pitch Roller Incident in Thailand

Andros Townsend has discovered that there are away days rougher than Stoke.

The former England winger was involved in a bizarre incident in Thailand when he was run over by a pitch roller before a Thai League 1 match – and still ended up playing.

Townsend, now with PT Prachuap, was warming up ahead of their game at Pattani on Saturday night when chaos broke out on the touchline. A member of the home staff appeared to lose control of a heavy pitch roller, which then careered into the 35-year-old.

The machine clattered into Townsend and his left leg was briefly trapped underneath, prompting shocked reactions as footage spread quickly across social media. Remarkably, the 13-cap England international escaped serious injury and came off the bench late on in Prachuap’s 3-0 victory.

Once the dust – and the worry – had settled, Townsend did what he does so often on television: he leaned into the humour.

A regular ITV pundit, the ex-Tottenham and Crystal Palace forward headed to Instagram to joke about the incident, calling back to one of his recent posts where he had compared a sun-soaked away trip in Thailand with the famously bleak experience of playing at Stoke’s bet365 Stadium.

"It turns out Stoke away wasn’t so bad after all. Swipe to see why," he wrote on his Instagram story, alongside the clip of the runaway roller taking him out.

Thai fans quickly turned the moment into content of their own. One post hailed Townsend as "The King of Memes in Thai League history". The winger embraced that too, replying simply: "trust me" – and letting the laughter do the rest.