Andros Townsend has claimed he shunned medicine during his recovery from being run over – because his bizarre diet was remedy enough.
The former England international has described how he couldn’t walk out of sheer ‘agony’ after almost being crushed by a pitch roller at half-time during a match in Thailand.
But over the next day, Townsend relied on his diet – which includes slow-cooked chicken feet, olive oil, and raw cacao – to repair his body.
‘The next 24 hours were all about giving my body everything it needed to recover, while avoiding simply masking the pain through medication,’ the 35-year-old wrote on TikTok.
‘Food is medicine.’
Townsend regularly shares his culinary masterpieces – typically presented with his tee-shirt off – in a bid to encourage his viewers to eat ‘real food’.
Andros Townsend says his diet acted as his medicine after he was run over by a pitch roller
Townsend was bizarrely run over while warming up for a game at this new club in Thailand
On this occasion, his recovery food consisted of six eggs, blueberries, extra virgin olive oil, raw cacao, smoked wild-caught salmon, raw cheese, an orange, tomatoes, eight-hour slow-cooked chicken feet in soup – a ‘favourite’, and kiwi.
The combination appears to have worked, as Townsend shared a clip of him walking unsupported – something he was unable to do in the hours after the accident, though he had initially played on without feeling much.
He told Track Radio: ‘I heard my team-mates screaming, and then before I could react, I felt the pressure of that roller going over me.
‘It’s amazing how I’ve gone from not missing a game through injury and almost getting killed by a pitch roller to walking away unscathed.
‘I think diet is so, so important.
‘I didn’t really feel anything that initial few minutes. It was only after the game, I was on the bus, and it all hit me pretty quickly.
‘We were on a 10-hour journey home after that game.
‘My knee just started to balloon and before long I couldn’t walk, I was in agony, my knee was throbbing. Even to go to the toilet, players were having to assist me.
The former England winger admitted he was extremely fortunate to escape unscathed after being run over in Thailand on Saturday
‘That all seems to have settled down now. Touch wood, I’m pretty unscathed.’
Footage of the incident quickly went viral on social media, but Townsend later made light of the ordeal on his Instagram story, posting: ‘It turns out Stoke away wasn’t so bad after all. Swipe to see why.’
He also told Piers Morgan’s Football Uncensored show: ‘Every time I see it, I’m cringing, I’m in disbelief. When I sent it to my kids, my kids thought it was AI. Literally, I had to explain to them, for the next ten minutes, that it was real.
‘It’s horrible to watch back and to see what could have been but, like I said, thankfully I was fortunate I did manage to fall onto the floor at the right time, so nothing snapped as the roller went over me. And I’m here today to laugh about and tell the story.’
Townsend joined Thai Premier League outfit PT Prachuap during the summer transfer window.
PT Prachuap – based in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, 150 miles south of Bangkok – appeared to have leaked Townsend’s arrival two weeks before he joined when they asked if anyone had a three-bedroom house available for the player to live in. They are the 17th club of his career.
Townsend made 29 appearances for Kanchanaburi Power last season, scoring three goals.
He has previously played for Spurs, Newcastle, Palace and Everton, and moved to Thailand after a short spell with Turkish side Antalyaspor.
Townsend making the move comes after he worked for ITV as a co-commentator during the World Cup.
The ex-England winger went viral at the tournament for his unconventional diet – which includes eating raw steak.
He released a slew of videos promoting his all-natural diet including raw steak, sardines and boiled eggs.
Townsend claims to have been eating raw meat for four years, dating back to his time when he was in the Premier League and would have had access to industry-leading dietary advice.
Eating raw meat is a risk. There is potential for it to be contaminated with harmful bacteria, such as E. coli or Salmonella, or parasites.
There are ‘safer’ versions of raw meat, such as whole cuts, which restrict the chance for bacteria to get inside compared to ground meat. However, the bacteria can still exist on the surface.
Townsend says he has not had any health issues from consuming raw meat and defends his diet on the basis that he gets more nutrients.
Some nutrients, such as Vitamin B1, Vitamin B6, and Vitamin B12, can be partially degraded in cooking and so raw meat retains a higher concentration of them.
He is not the only footballer to evangelise about the virtues of raw products; Norway and Manchester City striker Erling Haaland enjoys raw milk as part of his diet, though he cooks his meat rather ferociously.
