Anti-American sentiment is being blamed for a savage attack on a number of top basketballers which left one with a broken jaw and another with a broken hand in a fast-food restaurant in Castlebar in the early hours of Saturday morning.
"Americans think they rule the world" was one of the comments allegedly flung at Mike Speranza and Jared Harding at the Abrakebabra in Castlebar after they had gone there in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The free-scoring Speranza, who has helped transform the fortunes of the Castlebar Westaro side in Division One of the Northern Conference since arriving in Ireland from his native US last month, sustained a broken jaw.
He has been transferred to a Dublin hospital and will be out of the game for a considerable time. Also sidelined is Jared Harding, a native of Denver, Colorado, who sustained a broken hand. Also injured, although not seriously, was Nathan Selsby from Queensland, Australia, the top scorer in the Northern Conference.
Selsby said yesterday the row started when he went to the restaurant with his girlfriend, Rebecca.
"A guy leaned over as if to shake my hand and then all hell broke loose with anti-American comments being shouted. The irony of it all is that I am not American."
Mr Terry Kennedy, head coach with Castlebar Westaro, described the loss of Speranza and Harding yesterday as a "disaster for the club".
Gardaí are investigating reports that one of the attackers was carrying a bottle of wine and that another of the assailants was female. A number of people have been interviewed and a file would be sent to the DPP, a spokesman for Chief Supt John Carey said.