Controversial rugby star Gavin Henson was knocked out cold in his latest public ruck – with a punch from one of his new team-mates.
The 31 year-old former partner of singer Charlotte Church lay dazed for five minutes in the middle of a crowded pub after being felled by a single blow from someone who appears to be fellow Bath RC player Carl Fearns.
Mobile phone footage of the incident appears to show landing a right hook on Henson as they stood at the bar.
The bust-up came as Henson, who recently signed for Bath RFC, went boozing with nine of his new team-mates on Wednesday evening.
Witnesses said he had been arrogantly ‘swanning around’ the popular Pig and Fiddle pub in the centre of the Georgian city.
Tempers flared when a fellow player told the former Welsh international to calm down and the pair squared up.
The other player then punched Henson in the face, sending him sprawling onto the floor for five minutes.
His fellow players then picked him up and dusted him off and left him sitting in a chair in the corner to calm down.
Fearns, 24, a powerfully-built, backrow forward, was also being named on Twitter as the team-mate who knocked him out.
Liverpool-born Fearns, formerly of Sale Sharks, is a 6’3” power house who weighs in at 18 stone.
Police were alerted to the incident but did not attend after being told the situation was under control and the players had left the pub.
But Henson’s new boss – who last month described him as a ‘more settled and mature person’ – said they were investigating.
Nick Blofeld, chief executive of Bath RFC, said: “We are speaking to all those involved to clarify the situation.
“When we have all the facts, we will make any appropriate statement.”
Fellow drinkers said the behaviour they witnessed was “disgusting.”
One said: “There were about ten of them in the pub getting drunk but not being too rowdy.
“They seemed like they were all having a good time, apart from Henson who was strutting around like he owned the place.
“One of the other players told him to calm down and after a bit of a to-ing and fro-ing he just hit him.
“Henson went out like a light for about five minutes. He just lay there like a lump, right on the floor.”
Henson – who appeared on TV’s The Bachelor – was later seen chatting with the same player outside the pub and he left with the rest of the group.
The incident is not the first time Henson has clashed with his teammates or found himself in trouble while drinking.
In 2005, he was forced to apologise after he made negative comments about his team mates and the Lions tour to New Zealand.
In 2007 he was accused of disorderly conduct after ‘rowdy’ behaviour on a train from London to Cardiff.
Two years later he was again in trouble with the law after he was cautioned over an assault in Cardiff city centre.
And last April he was sacked by Cardiff Blues rugby team after he drunkenly threw ice cubes at passengers on a flight back from a match in Glasgow.
In March he was embarrassingly turned away from a Girls Aloud tour party in the London hotspot Whisky Mist for being ‘worse for wear’ despite “flashing £20 notes at doorman”.
Mr Blofled assured fans that Henson had changed his ways when he unexpectedly signed for the club last month.
He said: “I think Gavin is much more settled and mature person than that image we have in our heads.”
