A FOOTBALLER was this afternoon found guilty of stamping on an opponent after breaking his ankle in a tackle.

Mark Ward, 23, was warned he faces jail when he returns to Teesside Crown Court to be sentenced on May 19.

Ward was convicted of common assault at the end of a four-day trial during which he was originally charged with causing grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The grievous bodily harm charge related to the ankle-breaking tackle which teenage opponent, Jonathan Carroll, said was a deliberate “two-footed lunge”.

Trial judge, Peter Fox, QC, threw out the charge after saying evidence from witnesses did not show the challenge was malicious, and that it was the “norm” in football.

The common assault charge was then put in to replace the count of actual bodily harm because there was no evidence that the alleged stamp caused injury.

The jury of seven women and five men simply had to decide on whether Ward stamped on Mr Carroll, then an 18-year-old playing in a pre-season tournament for Marton against Whale Hill.

Marton took an early two-goal lead in the game at Eston Sports Academy, near Middlesbrough, before Mr Carroll was badly injured and taken to hospital.

Mr Carroll and team-mates claimed Ward stamped on his broken ankle after swearing at him and telling him to get up, but the Whale Hill midfielder insisted he would never deliberately hurt another player.

The jury took just over three hours to convict Ward, of St Mary’s Court, Middlesbrough, of common assault.