Sunderland fan sues club after being hit by ball

Sunderland are being sued by a fan who was knocked unconscious by Frenchman Djibril Cisse during a training session. More bad news for English football in a season that has already seen drunken orgies and airgun shootings? Fortunately this incident was a complete accident and Cisse's only crime was to let fly with a shot that missed the goal but hit a fan.

If supporting Sunderland in itself wasn't cause enough for sympathy, the unfortunate Black Cats fan was knocked out by Cisse's stray strike and is now taking legal action against the club.

Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn described the incident during BBC Newcastle's Total Sport radio show, saying: "We had a supporter who got a bad injury. I think it was one of Djibril Cisse's misses where he had a shot from 20 yards. I'm making fun of it now, but it knocked a supporter out. It was quite serious... That supporter is in the process of suing us right now."

The club hope to settle out of court with the fan but one upshot of the incident is that they have ended their policy of open access to training sessions to ensure there is no repetition.

Even though Cisse - who scored 11 goals for the Black Cats during his 38-game loan spell from Marseille - left the Stadium of Light in 2009 (he now plays for Greek side Panathinaikos) players like Steed Malbranque and Danny Welbeck tend to spray the ball around like a sprinkler on a hot summer's day so Sunderland are taking no chances.

"We do have issues with it, particularly with health and safety, but there could be other options further down the line," said chief executive Steve Walton.

"We might look to create a show pitch in years to come which could give us a long-term solution. But we are also looking at having fans being able to watch the players at the stadium when they train there." ·