Shamed Premiership footballer Joey Barton is due to be sentenced after admitting attacking a former team mate during a training ground bust-up.
Barton, already serving six months jail for affray and assault, finally confessed on Monday to attacking Ousmane Dabo, punching him to the ground then continuing the attack in an "explosive combination of football and violence," the court heard.
The 25-year-old pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, on Monday.
He was due to go on trial after "strenuously denying" the allegation for more than 12 months - before finally changing his plea just before the trial began.
Frenchman Dabo was knocked unconscious and "left looking like the Elephant Man" after the pair, both at the time playing for Manchester City, clashed at the club`s Carrington training ground on May 1 last year.
Dabo was treated in hospital for the affects of head trauma, an inflamed eye and bruised eyelids. He also suffered from headaches for three weeks.
Richard Pardon, prosecuting, said: "He (Dabo) said he was genuinely scared that his eye was going to be permanently damaged so that he could not play football and there was a risk to his career. He (Barton) has never apologised or sent any messages of apology."
Meanwhile, CCTV footage of the alcohol-fuelled violence which saw Joey Barton jailed in May has been released by police.
The 25-year-old was captured on film in Liverpool punching one man up to 20 times before he embarked on a second attack which left a teenage boy with broken teeth.
Barton, 25, and his cousin, Nadine Wilson, 27, and brother Andrew Barton, 20, were involved in two violent incidents during the early hours of December 27 last year.
