Roman Weidenfeller set upon in a restaurant

Those who thought only David Bentley was annoying enough to be attacked while eating in a restaurant will be rocked by news from German paper Bild, which claims that Borussia Dortmund’s goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller was beaten up in an eating establishment last night.

The 29-year-old was enjoying a salad and coverage of the Champions League in an Italian restaurant in Dortmund’s city centre when five men burst in, directing punches at the shot stopper. Weidenfeller said:

“They fought like savages at us. I was able to escape thanks to my good reflexes.”

Act of terrorism rocks the Asia 2009 pre-season tour

A 100,000 sell-out crowd were looking forward to seeing Manchester Utd play a friendly against an Indonesian All Star side in Jakarta on Monday, but the game has been cancelled after a series of hotel bomb attacks killed at least nine people.

Yesterday the squad arrived in Kuala Lumpur ahead of a friendly against a Malaysia XI on Saturday, and were due to stay were due to stay in Jakarta’s Ritz Carlton ahead of Monday’s match. Said hotel suffered in a series of attacks which happened in Jakarta’s central business district just after midnight GMT.

Manchester Utd have issued a statement via their official site:

Following the explosions in Jakarta - one of which was at the hotel the team were due to stay in - and based on advice received, the directors have informed the Indonesian FA that the club cannot fulfil the fixture in Jakarta on the 2009 Asia tour.

We are working on a revised itinerary outside Indonesia with the promoters and we will make a further announcement when these decisions have been made.

We are deeply disappointed at not being able to visit Indonesia and thank the Indonesian FA and our fans for their support.

Our thoughts go to all those affected by the blasts.

Alex Ferguson told a news conference that the cancellation was the correct decision in light of the need to safeguard the players and staff.

There’s no word yet on whether this attack will affect the rest of the Far East tour, which should also take in China and South Korea.

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