A WOMAN who is suing two footballers she claims raped her was intoxicated but capable of consenting to sex, a court has heard.

Defence lawyers for one of the players told a judge that it was entirely possible to have intercourse while under the influence of drink, but have no memory of it afterwards.

Laura Thomson said research showed that with alcohol-induced blackouts people could drive, have sex, get into fights, commit vandalism and spend money of which they had no memory.

She argued that lack of memory did not equate to a lack of consent to what took place.

The 30-year-old is suing former Scotland striker David Goodwillie, 27, and David Robertson, 30, after raising a £500,000 claim alleging that they raped her at a flat in Greig Crescent, in Armadale, in West Lothian, in the early hours of January 2 in 2011.

In the action the woman maintains that she has no recollection of what happened after being in the Glenmavis Tavern in nearby Bathgate earlier in the evening of January 1 until she awoke in the strange flat about 9.30am the next day alone, naked and in pain.

Neither man was prosecuted over the incident and both deny the allegation, claiming that sex was consensual.

Ms Thomson for Goodwillie, said when he was in the woman’s company, she was drinking and was intoxicated and he too was drinking.

But she told the Court of Session in Edinburgh that both were capable of walking, conversing and using their mobile phones.

The judge reserved his decision and will give a ruling at a later date.