Collymore claims assault by rugby players

Gardaí were today hoping to speak to battered ex-footballer Stan Collymore who claims he was assaulted by up to six rugby players.

Former Liverpool and Aston Villa striker Collymore, aged 33, told officers that the clash in Dublin city centre involved players from Bath rugby club.

He said the attack which left him with facial injuries took place outside a burger bar after a nightclub row in the early hours of Sunday.

Gardaí said Collymore who reportedly returned to his home in Cannock, Staffordshire, needs to return to Dublin to make a full statement on the alleged incident.

Collymore was in Ireland to appear on a TV show with Bertie Ahern’s novelist daughter Cecilia, while Bath had played against Leinster in a Heineken Cup tie.

He claims that the incident was sparked by an exchange of words in celebrity haunt Lillie’s Bordello in Grafton Street in which he alleged the girlfriend of a Bath player called him a “w*****”.

A Bath player then stepped in and verbally abused him, claimed Collymore.

Collymore said he left the club at 3.30am and went to the nearby Burger King in Grafton Street where he said he again saw the rugby players.

He told the Daily Mirror that several people “started shouting their mouths off” and he asked “what their problem was?”.

“I told them I would take any one of them on one-on-one outside, but they suddenly all piled in,” he said.

“I had no chance anyway, but the minute I saw this one guy coming at me I knew I was really in trouble. He was like the Jolly Green Giant.

“They kicked me all over the street. I went to the ground at one point, but I managed to get up again.

"There were five or six of them, all just bashing me.”

Gardaí were said to have broken up the clash, but no arrests were made. A Garda spokesman confirmed Collymore had made a complaint in person about the alleged incident.

He said: “Mr Collymore attended Pearse Street station at 5.30am on Sunday and was interviewed over claims he had been assaulted.

“He later left for medical attention at St James’s Hospital but never came back to the station and apparently returned to England.”

The spokesman added that Collymore would need to return to Dublin to make a full written statement in order for the investigation to continue.

Bath rugby club has not yet made an official comment on the matter.

It has been a troubled year for the controversial ex-footballer, who has battled depression after retiring from the game.

In March he checked into the Priory clinic with depression following his confession that he visited “dogging” sites near his home to have sex with strangers.

His wife Estelle, aged 26, threatened to leave him when he admitted he had driven to several public places to watch people having sex in cars.

He was bound over to keep the peace for 12 months in May following a row with his wife.

Recently, he stormed off British TV station Channel Five’s reality show The Farm following a blazing row with fellow celebrity contestant Vanilla Ice.