{"id":274660,"date":"2025-11-06T07:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T07:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/274660\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T07:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T07:09:09","slug":"wrexhams-james-mcclean-admits-punching-cardiff-fan-in-stadium-car-park-i-wasnt-waiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/274660\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrexham\u2019s James McClean admits punching Cardiff fan in stadium car park: \u2018I wasn\u2019t waiting\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wrexham winger James McClean has said he punched a fan of Cardiff City in self-defence at the club\u2019s car park before their recent Carabao Cup match.<\/p>\n<p>Republic of Ireland international McClean, who was an unused substitute in the match on October 28 which Cardiff won 2-1, said a group of men \u201cstarted running their mouths off\u201d at him when he was leaving his car at the Racecourse Ground.<\/p>\n<p>The 36-year-old messaged UK radio station <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/football\/3706695\/james-mcclean-statement-punched-fan-wrexham-cardiff\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">talkSPORT<\/a> to detail the incident, saying that words were exchanged between him and the group before he \u2018made the first swing (punch)\u2019 after a \u201chostile move\u201d was made against him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happened was I got out of my car in the players\u2019 car park,\u201d McClean\u2019s message read.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomehow, there were four male Cardiff fans, also late 20s, early 30s. They recognised me, [and] immediately started running their mouths off at me. I ignored the first jibe. The second, I responded to, and I confronted them about it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWords were said. One of them, a tall chap with glasses, made a hostile move towards me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike I\u2019ve told you in previous interviews, Jim, I\u2019m in my workplace and I feel I should never feel threatened in that workplace.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo instead, I wasn\u2019t waiting for him to make the first swing. So I did. Four men, one of me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-6781756 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2231115705-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Wrexham's James McClean during the Sky Bet Championship match at SToK Cae Ras, Wrexham. Picture date: Saturday August 23, 2025. (Photo by Cody Froggatt\/PA Images via Getty Images)\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1687\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>\n      McClean has not featured across Wrexham\u2019s most recent six matches (Cody Froggatt\/PA Images via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a chat with James on the evening and it has been dealt with and that\u2019s it,\u201d Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said after Wednesday\u2019s draw at Portsmouth. \u201cNo more to say on that tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Parkinson added: \u201cJames has had an injection in his hip and has been playing on for weeks with it. We needed to get that right and we took the decision to do that yesterday.<br \/>To get him available for the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Athletic have approached Wrexham, Cardiff and North Wales Police for comment.<\/p>\n<p>McClean\u2019s message added that no further action was taken following the incident:\u00a0\u201cPeople need to understand just because we play football doesn\u2019t mean people can try and take liberties without their actions having consequences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was it. Nothing further happened. And the situation was dealt with. I hope that helps.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McClean, who has scored eight goals in 89 appearances for Wrexham since his 2023 arrival from Wigan Athletic, has not featured in Wrexham\u2019s most recent six matches and was not in the travelling squad for Wednesday night\u2019s Championship away match at Portsmouth.<\/p>\n<p>League one side Cardiff won last week\u2019s cup tie 2-1 to progress to the quarter-final stage, earning an away draw at Newcastle United.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wrexham winger James McClean has said he punched a fan of Cardiff City in self-defence at the club\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[146413,2234,24507,20456,403,99,102580],"class_list":["post-274660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-cardiff-city","tag-championship","tag-league-one","tag-republic-of-ireland","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-wrexham-fc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}