Police investigating Powell attack
The Metropolitan Police's violent crime unit are investigating an incident in a west London pub which left Wales international Andy Powell with a head injury.
Powell and England prop Tim Payne have both been suspended "with immediate effect" by their club side Wasps, pending an internal investigation. The two players were drinking in the Walkabout pub in Shepherds Bush on Monday night when the altercation took place with a group of men.
"Officers were called at 22.30 to reports of an altercation at the Walkabout Public House on Shepherds Bush Green, W12," a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said. "An incident is being investigated by officers from the violent crime unit at Hammersmith and Fulham police. No one has yet been arrested and our enquiries are ongoing."
Powell is the second Wales Test player this week to be suspended by his club. On Monday, Toulon imposed a week-long ban on Gavin Henson, amid reports he had been fighting with team-mates after their Top 14 victory over Toulouse.
Medical student Hal Munton, 20, has told Press Association Sport he provided his T-shirt to compress a cut on Powell's head after witnessing the incident, although he did not see how it began. Mr Munton posted a picture of a man he says is Powell on Twitter, lying face down on the floor being tended to by police.
"They battered him. It was four or five against one. There were chairs and glass and fists," said Mr Munton, who was in the pub having been to the QPR-Derby game.
"Then they scarpered. It was crazy. I haven't seen a fight like it. Once he was on the floor he didn't have a hope in hell. He had a big cut on the top of his head. When he was on the ground they were kicking him. One of them threw a pint glass down at him before they left.''
Mr Munton said the police gave him back his T-shirt, which he threw away because it was covered in blood.
Powell is no stranger to controversy. Last year he was kicked out of Wales' Six Nations squad by coach Warren Gatland after being arrested for taking and driving away a golf buggy following a dramatic victory over Scotland. Powell was arrested near a motorway junction close to Wales' training base in the Vale of Glamorgan.
He subsequently pleaded guilty at Cardiff Magistrates' Court to driving a mechanically-propelled vehicle while being unfit through drink. He received a 15-month driving ban and was also fined.
