Aiden McGeady has lifted the lid on exactly what happened to spark a dressing room brawl between himself and madcap goalkeeper Artur Boruc.
The pair came to blows as teammates following an argument on the training pitch over something as innocuous as a free-kick. The story has grown arms and legs over the years but McGeady finally provided his side of the story on Open Goal with Si Ferry and Paul Slane.
McGeady claims Boruc was furious at the awarding of a free-kick in training and attempted to rush him after the disagreement. And when the Pole 'apologised' in the changing room afterwards, he landed a sucker-punch on the winger. Then things spilled over into the showers - with a starkers Boruc thumping the Irishman again.
McGeady recalled: "He was in the wrong that day. There were times when I was in the wrong, I've been cheeky to people and got a punch, but he was in the wrong that day.
"We were arguing about a free kick. Artur was like 'play on, play on' and I said 'mate shut up, it's a free kick'. When I said that, he's obviously flipped. I was standing and I've heard people saying 'woah woah!', so I turned around and big Artur was running at me.
"He went to throw a punch but I've moved out of the way of it and he did a forward roll after. I asked what he was playing at and he said 'I'll get you in there'... and to be fair he did get me in there.
"I was sitting reading a paper, it was quiet sly the way he did it because he was standing above me. He offered his hand and said he was sorry about earlier on.
"So I put my hand out and he just went bang and cracked me. It was a good punch because I had an immediate black eye. I tried to get him back. I stood up, obviously raging, I'm not going to batter Artur Boruc, am I?
"He is an absolute streetwise, 6ft 4, Polish bear, do you know what I mean? He could actually handle himself as well. I tried to get back at him, everyone is in the middle, and I'm cutting about with this black eye.
"Artur's like 'I told you, I told you' and then walked in the shower, and a few guys are about mixing it like, 'I wouldn't be taking that man'. So I thought 'you're right'. I just went in the shower after him but he spotted me coming and got me again.
"I'm trying to wrestle him. I had my training kit on but he was naked. "I was trying to get a dig in at him but he was man handling me to the ground. He was ready to boot me but Gaz Caldwell and [Glenn Loovens] grabbed him and wrestled him away."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here