RELATIVES of a Middlesbrough fan stabbed hours before his idols played AS Roma have flown to Rome to be at his bedside.

It is thought surgeons have had to remove one of 39-year-old David Allison's kidneys.

The father-of-two was stabbed when right-wing Italian thugs attacked Boro fans with knives, hammers and flares in the centre of the city.

Mr Allison was one of ten fans injured in an unprovoked attack by 30 masked Ultra hooligans. He was one of three Boro fans stabbed.

Mr Allison, from the Overfields area of Middlesbrough, sustained knife wounds to his back and chest in the violence the evening before the match.

He discharged himself from hospital to watch the match, but collapsed during the game and was taken back into hospital, where he remains.

A British Embassy spokes-man said: "He is still in hospital and we are in constant touch with him and his family, who are in Italy and receiving consular advice when they need it."

Allison fatally stabbed Teesside hardman Lee Duffy, but was acquitted of murder at Teesside Crown Court in February 1993.

A jury accepted he acted in self defence during a brawl outside the AfroWest Indian Club, in Marton Road, Middlesbrough, in August 1991.