Former Liverpool star Carroll reveals he was sexually assaulted

Carroll wrote in his autobiography 'Owning it' that the incident took place at his home with a man he had invited to stay over after watching a boxing fight on television.

The perpetrator, a friend of Carroll's former partner, was eventually jailed for three years.

The 37-year-old, who is now a player and co-owner of non-league club Dagenham and Redbridge, was automatically granted anonymity as a victim of sexual assault.

Carroll said the incident happened when he was sleeping.

He threw the man out of the house and knocked him unconscious when he attempted to get back inside.

"I was sexually assaulted, there I said it. Scary to even think about and only a few people knew about it before now," Carroll wrote.

Carroll decided to include the incident in his book "at the very last minute" after discussing it with his girlfriend Lou Teasdale.

"Me and Lou spent a lot of time discussing whether to mention it in this book or not. I avoided my publisher for so long that they probably suspected I got cold feet," he wrote.

"Scary to talk about but it's made (me) the person I am today as much as any of the good stuff. And if me talking about it helps just one person then good, it will have been worth it."

Carroll said testifying in court, where the attacker was found guilty of sexual offences and placed on the sex offender register, was "humiliating and embarrassing and absolutely horrendous".

The former Newcastle and West Ham forward, who won nine caps for England, added: "What happened to me affected every facet of my life.

"I'd think about it every day, making it difficult to focus on anything else, including football. The trauma of what happened to me hasn't gone away."