Morley: Gay rumours almost killed career

Former West Ham United star Trevor Morley has revealed the truth of the infamous night he was was stabbed and accusations of a ‘gay’ affair with Ian Bishop!.

In March 1991, the news that Morley was critically ill in hospital having been wounded in a domestic incident shook West Ham.

And although he made a good physical recovery, rumours that the incident had been caused by him having a gay relationship with Bishop began to circulate – and refused to go away.

In a wide-ranging interview with Blowing Bubbles Monthly, he explained: ‘I nearly died in the incident, but my long-term recovery wasn’t actually that bad. Wounds heal, but those rumours almost killed me off as a footballer over the following year.

‘We’ll never know quite how it started. I remember being at the house on my own and the press knocking on the door asking why I was stabbed. Then somehow – without it being printed anywhere – this rumour began and it went around like wildfire.

‘Within two days, I had a call from my sister saying on word of mouth alone, it had made it as far as Nottingham, and this was in the days before social media. It was incredible.

‘In the long term, the stabbing incident had no impact on me whatsoever physically or mentally, but those rumours put me off my game so badly. For a long time the following season, I just wasn’t there mentally at all – I was training ok but my head wasn’t right.’