Everton legend Duncan Ferguson once thought he had killed a burglar after he confronted two men who had broken into his Merseyside home
If there’s one footballer you didn’t want to mess with, it was former Everton striker Duncan Ferguson.
Known for his physical style of play, Ferguson never hid from a challenge. But there was once one incident where the former Premier League hardman thought he had killed a burglar who broke into his home on Merseyside back in 2001.
Big Dunc, who turned 53 this week, explained the whole incident to British boxing legend Tony Bellew. Speaking on the ‘Tony Bellew Is Angry’ podcast, Ferguson said: “I’m lying on the couch. I heard something…”
“I put my trainers on. I had no top on, I was ripped back then, and I could see two shadows coming through the conservatory. I was quite calm. I am quite calm with these things, probably because I’ve had one or two of these situations in the past, you get used to it.
“I got a grip of one of them and that was when I got angry… I unloaded, I really did. I really followed in to the point where I thought I’d killed him, I really did. I had to try and resuscitate him then. So you go from a point of unloading on the fella to helping him. It happened in a matter of seconds.”
Police confirmed that one of the burglars was taken to “taken to hospital for treatment” after the other fled the scene.
However, the inspector also added that he believed Ferguson “who was also injured in the incident, acted both bravely and responsibly when encountering these intruders in his home.’. The two men, Michael Pratt and Barry Dawson, were eventually jailed.
Dawson needed three days of hospital treatment following the incident, while Pratt turned himself into the police the following day. At the time, Judge Anthony Procter told Dawson and Pratt: “There is no way you can be called hardened criminals but we are dealing with a burglary at night when the house was occupied.
“Mr Ferguson may give the impression of being a hard man, but it is clear he was shaken by this incident, primarily for the effects on his wife and young child.”