Andros Townsend’s Terrifying Moment with Pitch Roller in Thailand

Andros Townsend has called the moment he was run over by a pitch roller in Thailand “terrifying” – and watching it back still makes him wince.

The 35-year-old former England winger, now playing for PT Prachuap in Thai League 1, was going through his warm-up in Pattani on Saturday when chaos suddenly cut across the routine. A member of the ground staff appeared to lose control of a heavy roller, which veered towards the players.

Townsend’s left leg was caught underneath.

For a few seconds, it looked horrific. Then, somehow, he was on his feet again.

He escaped without serious injury and even came off the bench later in the game as PT Prachuap cruised to a 3-0 win.

Speaking about the incident for the first time on Piers Morgan's Football Uncensored, Townsend admitted the footage is still hard to process.

“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 former Tottenham, Crystal Palace and Luton forward has known more than his share of injury setbacks. That history flashed through his mind in an instant.

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

Townsend revealed he had already clocked something unusual before the accident. Two rollers, one on each side of the pitch, were moving during the warm-up.

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

The reality in the moment was brutal. The roller pinned him, and for a brief spell he was being crushed.

“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 expected him to head straight for medical treatment. Townsend chose the opposite.

“They were very surprised that I continued the warm-up. They were telling me to go to the doctor,” he said. Instead, he tested the leg, shook off the shock and played on.

He admitted he feared for the ankle and left knee that have both previously required surgery. The relief at finding only “bumps and bruises” was obvious. The determination was just as clear.

The roller scare, he insisted, is “definitely not going to stop me from continuing.”

On Instagram, Townsend even managed to joke about it, calling back to a recent post where he had compared a sun-soaked away day in Thailand with the notoriously grim conditions at Stoke’s Bet365 Stadium.

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

For a player who has rebuilt his career more than once, a runaway roller in Thailand has become just another obstacle survived – and another story that underlines how thin the line can be between a scare and a career-ending moment.