Gary Swift: Champion pool player needed surgery after being attacked on way home from Yorkshire pub

Gary, 50, who was the English Pool Association wheelchair world champion three times, had been to The Fox, in Beighton, after getting back from a tournament in Mansfield.

But when he left, in his wheelchair which has an electric bike attached, he says he saw a group of people in hoodies on Robin Lane, and told them he ‘hoped they were not up to anything’.

He said at that point, he said one of them ran towards him and attacked him with a punch – breaking his jaw and eye socket.

He fled back to the pub as fast as he could. Staff called the police.

Gary said: “Luckily he didn’t knock me out or knock me out of my chair. I managed to get away and went back to the Fox pub for help. Staff and customers there were so helpful – thanks everyone.

“If these are not stopped he will kill someone one day. If this was someone old this might be a funeral not an operation."

The attack happened at around 12.30am on September 24.

He was X-rayed at accident and emergency, and doctors found he has suffered fractures to his eye socket, his cheekbone, and to his upper jaw.

He was taken in for surgery at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.

But he has refused to be intimidated by what happened, and says he will continue to go out, and will continue to take part in his high profile pool tournaments, with more scheduled in the next few weeks.

Gary has been in a wheelchair since he was a teenager. He was playing football near Dyke Vale Road, near Hackenthorpe, as a 13-year-old near an electricity substation 37 years ago, and went too close to an electrical cable, suffering permanent neck damage from the 11,000-volt shock.