Tottenham Hotspur legend Garry Mabbut suffered a bizarre incident in South Africa after his foot was chewed by a rat.
Mabutt did not feel the rodent feeding on his leg and was alerted by blood covering his bedding in Kruger National Park in South Africa.
“My daughter is at Cambridge University studying Veterinary Medicine and during the recess, they have to do placements. I got a placement in South Africa in the Kruger Park. So I escorted her out there and we were staying in a thatched house about 16 miles from the nearest town. Unfortunately, due to the injuries through my career and some diabetes – I have very little feeling in my feet.” Mabutt told Radio Five Live.
“So I’ve gone to sleep and during the night a rat has come has into the bedroom, climbed into the bed and decided to chew on my foot. It made quite a big hole in my toe going down to the bone and ate underneath my foot so it became infected,” he explained.
The rat also got a piece of the legend daughter’s hand and Mabutt jokingly said that it was unfortunate that a rodent could attack him after taking down opponents on the pitch all along his career.
“I then got home quite quickly and then I was in the hospital for a week and that was about, crikey, about six weeks ago now. When you think about it all the opponents that I played against I finally get taken out by a rat. Firstly it bit my daughter’s thumb in the other bedroom and she came to me and said ‘Dad something’s bitten me’. Of course being in Africa you think of Snakes and scorpions.” he said with a sense of joke in his statement.