Former Nottingham Forest defender Alan Rogers has revealed how a gunman once turned up a training to kill a player who crossed a criminal - or so he thought.
The terrifying but eventually funny story revolves around his time as assistant manager at League of Ireland side Sligo Rovers in 2015.
According to Rogers, a Sligo player, understood to be Patrick Nzuzi, had gotten too friendly with a local criminal's daughter and was left with no choice but to flee the country immediately.
Speaking on the Under the Cosh podcast, Rogers went on to say that at a subsequent training session, what he believed to be a gunman had come to training to track down Nzuzi, only to go for former Port Vale winger Jennison Myrie-Williams in a case of mistaken identity.
Rogers says he and manager Micky Adams attempted to intervene, only for it turn out the whole thing was a prank carried out by another player - current Sligo player/coach John Russell.
"We're training on the first team pitch. Next minute we see this kid with a hood up and I've gone 'What's he doing?' to Micky Adams," Rogers said.
"I've gone over and the kid just disappears. As we're training, I've seen Gavin Pearce, big hard Pearce, he's bailed over the advertising hoarding.
"I've gone, our centre-half's gone! The right-back, Alan Keane, he's gone!
"I turn round and there's a fella with a gun! Patrick was a black lad and (the gunman's) gone over to Jenno (Jennison Myrie-Williams who is also black).
"I've gone 'it's not him, it's not him'. Jennison has frozen and the guy turns to me with a gun and I've gone 'it's not me, it's not me either!'
"Everyone's gone. There's Jennison, me and the guy with a gun. It's Johnny Russell, one of the lads who is injured!
"He's laughing his head off. It was one of the best pranks I've ever come across. He had a wooden gun that looked real.
"There was only him and the physio who knew about it. Can you imagine being there?"
And what of Nzuzi? Rogers, who made more than 150 appearances for Forest over two spells, says he is unsure what happened to the defender, whose last known club was Kent-based non league side Herne Bay.
"He was s**t. It did us a massive favour. He was on about 400 euro a week and he was poo," he said.
