By JOHN DRAYTON
The Christmas party season has begun and Premier League footballers are already embroiled in troubled after Andy Carroll allegedly assaulted a photographer outside a nightclub.
West Ham were the first to get their festive celebrations in full swing as the players went on a weekend tour to Dublin following Saturday’s 3-1 win over Chelsea.
But Carroll, who is ruled out for eight weeks with a knee ligament injury, reportedly went berserk at snapper Paddy Cummins after he attempted to photograph the crocked England international leaving a popular nightspot WITHOUT a leg brace he had been wearing earlier in the evening.
Cummins, who is 5ft 8in, claims the 6ft 3in on-loan Liverpool striker gouged his right eye while trying to grab his camera.
Cummins also claims the former Newcastle star went to BITE him after knocking him to the floor.
The 33-year-old photographer was later admitted to hospital, where he offered a statement to the police which they are now investigating.
‘He was like a wild animal,’ Cummins told The Sun.
‘I felt this terrible pain in my eye as he gouged me.
‘I was screaming, “My eyes!” but he kept it up. The pain was incredible.’
A spokesman for the Garda press office in Dublin said officers received a report of an incident at 2.30am yesterday.
Officers at the city’s Pearse Street station are investigating the incident.
It is understood members of the West Ham football team were spoken to by gardai following reports of an assault.
No arrests were made, the Garda spokesman said.
Carroll’s agent Mark Curtis, who is also the representative for Hammers boss Sam Allardyce, declined to comment over the alleged assault.
Speaking about the disappearance of the leg brace he said: ‘The leg brace was outside his trousers inside the club because he wanted people to see it so they wouldn’t knock into him. When he left he put it under the trousers.
‘He can’t walk without it. He isn’t a daft lad and he wouldn’t be able to put weight on his leg without it.
‘You can see from the shape of his trousers in the picture [published in The Sun] that it’s underneath.’
Allardyce’s side were staying at the five-star Fitzwilliam Hotel and kicked-off their weekend in the Irish capital’s Grafton Lounge before visiting the popular Coppers nightspot.
Carroll was one of several first-team Hammers’ players spotted by fans at the Quays pub in Temple Bar in the early hours of Sunday morning said to be downing pints of Guinness and Jagerbombs.
According to the report in The Sun, Carroll refused to discuss the alleged spat with the photographer and insisted he’d had a ‘great night’.
West Ham told the newspaper that snapper Cummins was ‘restrained’ by security staff outside the nightclub in question but denied contact with the striker.
