LONDON — Former Liverpool, Newcastle and England striker Andy Carroll has revealed in his autobiography that he was sexually assaulted by a man in 2021 and still struggles to deal with the ordeal.
Carroll’s autobiography, called ‘Owning It’, was published on Thursday and in it the 37-year-old Englishman details the attack at his home in Newcastle, which led to the perpetrator reportedly being jailed for three years.
“Something happened to me a few years ago that was so traumatic I only decided to include it in this book at the very last minute,” he wrote in the book, extracts of which have been published in the British press.
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“I was sexually assaulted, there I said it. Scary to even think about and only a few people knew about it before now.”
Carroll was also tormented by the prospect of talking about what happened before finally deciding to include it in the book, after speaking at length with his girlfriend.
“Me and Lou spent a lot of time discussing whether to mention it in this book or not,” he said. “Scary to talk about but it’s made (me) the person I am today as much as any of the good stuff. And if me talking about it helps just one person then good, it will have been worth it.”
The mental anguish continued long after the attack, which happened after a friend of his former partner came to his home to watch a boxing match and was set to stay overnight.
Carroll details how he threw the man - who he said was a “celebrity mate” - out of the house and then “smacked him unconscious” when he tried to come back in. He then called the police.
“What happened to me affected every facet of my life. I’d think about it every day, making it difficult to focus on anything else, including football,” he said. “The trauma of what happened to me hasn’t gone away.”
Carroll cost Liverpool 35 million pounds ($46 million) when he joined from Newcastle in January 2011. Back then, he was the Premier League’s most expensive British transfer signing.
He also played for West Ham in the Premier League, and scored twice for England, including one goal at the European Championship in 2012.
At the end of his professional career, Carroll played briefly in France with Amiens and Bordeaux before joining non-league Dagenham and Redbridge in England, scoring six goals last season. ___
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