A FIVE-A-SIDE footballer needed an emergency brain operation after he was punched during a league match, a court was told yesterday.

Darren Mitchell, a telecommunications engineer, was catapulted towards a wall and knocked unconscious at Saltburn Leisure Centre, in east Cleveland.

Mr Mitchell,32, a substitute for the Clarendon Hotel, Redcar, suffered a base of skull fracture from the blow by Andrew Walker, 22, playing for his works team North Eastern Tyres and Exhausts.

Fred Nath, a consultant neurosurgeon at The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, said Mr Mitchell has sustained a severe brain injury and required an emergency operation.

He was in hospital for 13 days and left with scarring at the top of his forehead and suffered deafness.

Tim Capstick, in mitigation, said Mr Walker told police: "It was an accident. If he hadn't banged his head he would probably have got up and had a go at me."

Mr Walker, a works supervisor, told Teesside Crown Court that he struck out after Mr Mitchell, of Arthur Terrace, New Marske, east Cleveland, repeatedly punched his teammate Shaun Lyons.

Father-of-two Mr Walker said: "Shaun was down on one knee defenceless and Mr Mitchell was behind him.

"I saw about five or six blows land on him. I pulled Mr Mitchell to one side by his shoulder, told him 'get off him' and I just punched him.

"He landed on the floor on his backside but he catapulted back into the wall.

"I was horrified. We stood around waiting just to see if he came around. The referee came up to me and said, 'I think you had better leave the centre' and he asked me for my name.

"When I got home I was worried, so I phoned the centre because I was concerned for Darren because I knew he took a bad blow to the head."

Cross-examined by Mr Capstick, he said: "I just wanted to warn him, really. If I had just held him, he would probably have thrown punches at me. That's the impression I got. It was a spur of the moment thing. You don't think about punching people, do you?

"It was the only way to stop the assault on Shaun because he was defenceless. It just happened, I was not thinking."

Mr Walker, of Foster Street, Brotton, east Cleveland, pleads not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm on May 14 last year.

The case continues