Andros Townsend run over by pitch roller but still plays

Andros Townsend has survived enough hostile away days to last a career, but nothing quite like this.

The former England winger was bizarrely run over by a pitch roller in Thailand on Saturday night – then dusted himself down and came off the bench to help his side PT Prachuap to a 3-0 win at Pattani.

The 35-year-old was going through his warm-up when a member of Pattani’s staff appeared to lose control of the heavy roller. The machine clattered into Townsend, briefly trapping his left leg underneath before it juddered to a halt.

For a few worrying seconds, it looked ugly. This was no harmless pre-match prank, it was a piece of ground equipment that had suddenly turned into a hazard.

Townsend, capped 13 times by England and once a regular for Tottenham and Crystal Palace, eventually got back to his feet. Remarkably, he was fit enough to feature later in the Thai League 1 clash, coming on as a substitute as Prachuap cruised to victory.

Once the three points were in the bag, the winger did what he does best off the pitch these days: he turned the chaos into content.

A regular pundit on ITV and an increasingly sharp presence on social media, Townsend went straight to Instagram to joke about the incident, leaning on an old English football cliché.

"It turns out Stoke away wasn’t so bad after all. Swipe to see why," he wrote on his story, a nod to a recent post where he had contrasted a sun-soaked away day in Thailand with the cold, windswept reality of trips to Stoke’s bet365 Stadium.

The contrast suddenly felt a little less glamorous.

Thai fans quickly seized on the moment. One post hailed him as "The King of Memes in Thai League history". Townsend’s response was short and perfectly judged for the chaos he’d just been through: "trust me", followed by four laughing emojis.

A freak accident, a clean bill of health, three points, and another viral moment. Townsend’s Thai adventure is proving anything but quiet.