Leeds footballers Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate will face a new GBH trial.

The two players - accused of beating up an Asian student - will be retried before a High Court judge back at Hull Crown Court on October 8.

Bowyer and Woodgate will go back into the dock after their trial sensationally collapsed yesterday, Judge Mr Justice Poole today ruled.

Two other men also accused of attacking Sarfraz Najeib, 20, in Leeds in January last year will also be retried.

The new trial will throw an ugly shadow over the start of next season for Bowyer and Woodgate as well as Leeds.

The Elland Road club will be just weeks into their new Premiership and European campaigns when two of their biggest stars go back to court.

And the Football Association today repeated that neither Bowyer nor Woodgate will play for England until the case is over.

The jury at Hull Crown Court was discharged by Mr Justice Poole yesterday after deliberating for three days. The 10-week hearing cost £8 million.

Mr Justice Poole told the jury an article in the Sunday Mirror had created such a serious risk of prejudice that it was impossible to go on.

Mr Justice Poole said: "Whatever the intentions behind that publication the effect for now is that all of that effort has been derailed.''

He is referring the Sunday Mirror article to the Attorney General - and the paper now faces being prosecuted for contempt of court.

The seven men and four women were dismissed following two hours of legal argument.

Leeds stars Woodgate, 21, and Bowyer, 24, and Paul Clifford and Neale Caveney, both 21, now face a new ordeal in court.

They all denied charges of grievous bodily harm with intent and affray.

The men were charged after Mr Najeib, from Rotherham, South Yorks, was brutally attacked outside the Majestyk nightclub in Leeds city centre in January last year.

He suffered a broken leg, fractured nose and head injuries.

The jury returned not guilty verdicts last week on a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice against another Leeds player, Michael Duberry, 25, and on Woodgate, Clifford and Caveney.

Updated: 17.52 Tuesday, April 10