A Scottish footballer knocked a man unconscious and left him with a serious neck injury following a pub brawl in Edinburgh.

Dunfermline Athletic captain Kyle Benedictus launched the attack on victim Dean Wilkes when two groups of men clashed at Freddy’s bar in the capital’s city centre earlier this year.

During the violent bust up Benedictus, 34, was seen to repeatedly punch Mr Wilkes to the head before grabbing the man in a headlock.

The pair then fell to the ground where the victim was knocked unconscious after cracking his head off the bar and suffered a broken bone in his neck that later required surgery.

The burly centre half, from Plean, near Stirling, then left the pub but was later arrested and charged with the assault.

Benedictus pleaded guilty to assaulting Dean Wilkes to

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