Former England star reacts to being ran over on the pitch: 'It was terrifying'

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FT Desk

Former England winger Andros Townsend has reflected on the "terrifying" experience of being run over by a pitch roller at the weekend.

The 35-year-old, who featured for the likes of Tottenham, Crystal Palace and Everton in the Premier League, is still playing in the Thai League 1 with PT Prachuap F.C.

On Saturday, he found himself warming up ahead of a fixture against Pattani when a member of the ground staff lost control of a motorised pitch roller that suddenly went through the middle of the field. Townsend got caught under the front roller as he fell to the pitch in pain.

"Every time I see it, I'm cringing, I'm in disbelief," he said on Piers Morgan Uncensored.

"It's horrible to watch back and to see what could have been.

"Thankfully I was fortunate I did manage to fall on to the floor at the right time, so nothing snapped as the roller went over me.

Crazy Scenes as Andros Townsend gets ran over by a Roller!

Luckily he wasn’t badly hurt afterwards, could’ve ended soo much worse

Welcome to the Thai League pic.twitter.com/EGI2jGfK6r

— Josh (@ayooo2772) September 19, 2026

"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 [more] of it.

"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."

Fortunately for Townsend, he managed to escape the incident with just bumps and bruises, but it could have been much worse as in the footage it looks like his knee and lower leg get caught at an awkward angle.

😅 “I thought I was done!”

🤣 “Why weren’t you checking your shoulders, mate?!”

Andros Townsend recounts the viral clip of him being run over by a pitch roller during warm-ups in Thailand 👇

📺 https://t.co/AR9oDuDgc0@andros_townsend | @piersmorgan | @jaybothroyd pic.twitter.com/78mkD5kRL6

— Sports Uncensored (@SportsUncensrd) September 21, 2026

Remarkably, he got up and finished his warm up before playing the game.

"[My team-mates] were very surprised that I continued the warm-up. They were telling me to go to the doctor," he said.

"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.

"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.

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

Since leaving Luton and England as a whole in 2025, Townsend has since played for Antalyaspor, Kanchanaburi Power and now PT Prachuap, whom he joined in August.