Manchester United fan bleeds to death after kicking foot through television

James Gibbon believed to have accidentally severed arteries in fury following Emirates FA Cup 4th Round defeat to Middlesbrough

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Joe Douglas Home

2/6/20222 min read

Man Utd players react furiously to a handball which would soon cause a man's death 118 miles away.
Man Utd players react furiously to a handball which would soon cause a man's death 118 miles away.

LITTLE DID THEY KNOW: United players claim Boro cheated whilst scoring an equalising goal that would indirectly kill a man in South London. (Spaniel Davids/Taste of Glory Sports Gallery)

Campaigners have called for more to be done to protect middle-aged men after a 49 year old man reportedly bled to death after kicking his television in frustration whilst watching a football match broadcast on Friday night.

James Gibbon, originally from Farnworth in Greater Manchester, was rushed to hospital from his home in Streatham, South London, at around 11:30pm after severing several arteries in his leg by smashing his foot through his living room television after Middlesbrough triumphed over Manchester United in an Emirates FA Cup match. He was pronounced dead on arrival at St. George's Hospital.

A neighbour told reporters, "We would often hear him screaming about the football so we didn't initially assume there was anything wrong until the ambulance arrived. One of the other neighbours must have phoned it because his wife and children always went away when he was watching a game.”

Another neighbour said, “It’s so sad. He would watch football all by himself and just get furious. He’d go out into the garden and start screaming expletives into the sky.”

Mackenzie Albertson, Head of Communications at male mid-life crisis charity Halfway, warns, “there’s an increasing number of middle-aged men seriously injuring themselves whilst watching football matches by themselves on television.” He explained, “we’ve had broken hands from repeatedly punching walls, toilet plungers rammed into their own eye sockets, and now this. It’s reaching epidemic proportions.”

Local non-league football club Streatham Rovers, whose Greyhound Lane Stadium backs on to Mr. Gibbon’s Westwell Road house, issued the following statement: “We are very saddened to learn of Mr. Gibbon’s death, not least because he never once thought to attend one of our games. There’s a certain poetry that he should slowly bleed to death alone from injuries caused by a TV he was watching a Premier League team on whilst a historic non-league side was right there, almost literally on his doorstep, totally unacknowledged. He wouldn’t have died alone at a Streatham match. That’s a 100% guarantee.”