Wasps 'angry and frustrated' with Powell

Senior Wasps officials are understood to be “angry and frustrated” with Andy Powell, who has been suspended by the club after suffering a head wound in a bar-room brawl on Monday night.

The Wasps board today launched their investigation into the incident and have received a copy of CCTV footage from the Walkabout Pub in Shepherds Bush.

The club say they are treating the matter extremely seriously.

Speculation Powell, a Wales international, faces the sack is said to be premature given the internal inquiry has only just begun.

But sources at Wasps have told Press Association Sport that Powell’s decision to give an unsanctioned interview to a newspaper has “made matters worse”.

Powell told the Daily Telegraph he had been knocked unconscious and required at least 10 stitches after “a bit of banter” with some football fans escalated into a fight.

“I was knocked to the ground by a gang who then started to kick and punch me,” said Powell.

“I curled up into a ball and put my hands over my face and temples but couldn’t cover the back of my head.

“I was then hit by a bar stool and lost consciousness after that but I suffered a pretty bad cut. There was blood everywhere.

“I think I lost around two pints of blood in the pub and was taken away in an wheelchair and then taken by ambulance to a hospital where they stitched me up.”

The Metropolitan Police’s violent crimes unit are investigating the incident. No arrests have been made.

Powell has said he does not want to press charges.

Wasps’ England prop Tim Payne, who was with Powell in the Walkabout, has also been suspended by the club.

Payne, 31, is a member of England’s elite squad and could be selected for the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand later this year.

The Rugby Football Union are monitoring the situation.

“We are aware of the incident but at the current time this is a matter for the players and their club and we are working with them to understand the facts of the situation,” said an RFU spokesman.

“We are confident the players will co-operate fully with the club’s internal investigation.”

The Welsh Rugby Union have not commented on Powell’s situation.

The 29-year-old former Cardiff Blues player, and a Lions tourist to South Africa in 2009, is no stranger to controversy.

Last year he was kicked out of Wales’ Six Nations squad by coach Warren Gatland after being arrested for taking and driving away a golf buggy following a dramatic victory over Scotland.

Powell was arrested near a motorway junction close to Wales’ training base in the Vale of Glamorgan.

He subsequently pleaded guilty at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court to driving a mechanically-propelled vehicle while being unfit through drink. He received a 15-month driving ban and was also fined.