Tofting apologises after alleged assault

Bolton Wanderers' Stig Tofting apologised last night after being charged with assault for allegedly headbutting a cafe manager and hitting another man who tried to intervene.

The Denmark midfielder was released by police in Copenhagen yesterday after a night in the cells and immediately apologised to the pair – a timely act as Danish sources claimed he faces up to 18 months in jail.

Officers were called after a disturbance at Cafe Ketchup, where Tofting is suspected of causing a cut above the eye of the manager. The second victim was the restaurant chef, who was trying to drag him away.

The row was seemingly sparked by a comment about Tofting's parents, whose deaths when he was a child made controversial front page news during the finals.

The Cafe owner Torben Olsen said: "Stig has got a short fuse, but he has already apologised unreservedly to the people who were there. He is very sad at what has happened."

Tofting was at a Danish Football Federation function with his international team-mates Jan Heintze, the Sunderland goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen, Everton's Thomas Gravesen, Jon Dahl Tomasson and Dennis Rommedahl when the trouble began.

The Bolton midfielder has been accused of violence before. In 1999 he was given a 20-day conditional discharge after hitting a 24-year-old man in Aarhus, also in a restaurant.

Tofting, 32, announced his retirement from international football following Denmark's second-round exit to England at the World Cup and said at the time: "I want to leave while people are still proud of what I have done."