Andros Townsend's Terrifying Pitch Roller Incident 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 his stomach turn.

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 staff appeared to lose control of a heavy roller working along the side of the pitch. Within seconds, Townsend was underneath it.

His left leg was briefly trapped under the machine. Remarkably, he escaped without serious injury and still 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 did not downplay how close he felt to disaster.

“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.”

He admitted the whole scene had struck him as odd even before the accident. During the warm-up, he noticed two rollers parked on either side of the pitch.

“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 footage shows the roller edging towards him before pinning him to the turf. Townsend explained how he relied on instinct and strength just to get out.

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

For a player whose career has already been scarred by serious injuries, the fear in that split second was very real. His left ankle and left knee have both been operated on. As the roller pressed down, his mind went straight to those weak points.

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

His team-mates, stunned that he had survived it at all, urged him to head straight for medical checks.

“They were very surprised that I continued the warm-up. They were telling me to go to the doctor,” Townsend said. Instead, he shook off the shock, carried on, and played his part in the win.

This is a player who has fought back from enough setbacks to know one more freak scare will not knock him off course. The roller incident, he insisted, is “definitely not going to stop me from continuing”.

True to character, he later chose to laugh at his own misfortune on Instagram. Not long ago he had joked about swapping bleak winter trips to Stoke's Bet365 Stadium for sun-drenched away days in Thailand. After nearly being crushed by ground equipment, his punchline wrote itself.

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

From freezing nights in the Premier League to dodging pitch rollers in Thai League 1, Townsend’s journey has taken another wild turn. He is still walking, still playing, and, crucially, still not backing down.