Two former Lincoln City players have been in the news for the wrong reasons in the last 24 hours, both now facing spells out of the game.
James Rowe (pictured top) only came on trial and technically never signed, although he did play in the friendly against Lincoln United in the summer of 2017. Since then he’s been with Aldershot in the National League, turning into a solid player in the centre of their midfield.
That won’t be the case for a while as he now faces a spell on the side lines. He hasn’t been injured in action, he hasn’t had a flare up from an old knock. No, he’s stood on glass.
He’s out for a significant period of time too after standing on a glass of squash he’d dropped on the floor. Whilst there’s an amusing element to the story, it certainly isn’t funny for the player who has apparently suffered serious lacerations to his foot.
Aldershot manager Gary ‘Wadfather’ Waddock told reporters: “It was a domestic injury – an unfortunate one. He’ll be out for some time. One or two things do happen outside of football and it’s just an unfortunate accident that he’s had.”
Whilst Rowe has been unfortunate, there’s no luck involved in the National League winning player currently without a club. Riccardo Calder didn’t play a significant role after joining on loan from Aston Villa, playing just once in the league as we drew 0-0 at Maidstone.
The left-back returned to his parent club and in the summer of 2017 joined Inverness Caledonian Thistle, where he made 24 starts and a further 22 outings as a sub. He had recently broken into the first team, scoring on October 30th against Dunfermline. That will be his last goal for club.
He’s recently been found guilty of assaulting a woman in a car park, prompting his dismissal from the Scottish Championship side. Calder apparently met his victim at a club and drove her to retrieve her vehicle. She then collided with his car and when they pulled over in a car park to assess the damage, he hit her several times in the face.
The budding rap star, nicknamed ‘Cardz’ is now going to have to focus on his music career as it is unlikely many professional clubs will be eager to employ a woman beater from the Scottish second tier.
The Imps have had several players who have had brushes with the law in recent years. Ali Fuseini stood trial for kidnapping, as well as aiding and abetting rape, but was cleared of the charges in 2011. He was later jailed for driving offences.
Matthew Ghent was sent to jail for attacking an ex-partner, he played a game and a half on loan at City in the nineties. Delroy Facey and Moses Swaibu were both found guilty of match fixing and sent to prison.
Recently, National League winner Bradley Wood was suspended from football for betting irregularities, although that didn’t result in a criminal trial.
Bit of a nothing story to be fair….
And yet oddly read by three times as many people as the Neal Eardley chat.
You’d be surprised what people do and don’t like to read.