A FOOTBALL boot fitted with blades instead of studs slashed a five-inch wound into a player's leg in Kent.

And it was perfectly legal. For bladed boots have the blessing of the soccer authorities.

Now the victim, Maidstone school teacher Ian Tillott, and his West Farleigh club, have called for a rethink of the rules.

And the Kent Messenger has joined their call in a letter to Football Association Chief Executive Mark Palios which urges action to rid football of dangerous metal blades which can become razor-sharp with wear.

Simon Haydon, the Kent Messenger's Head of Sport and a soccer referee, said in his letter that FA advice that the blades are safe "flies in the face of a growing catalogue of instances of serious injuries to players".

Mr Tillott, a maths teacher at Astor of Hever Schhol, Maidstone, will be off work for two weeks because of his injury.

Former Gillingham defender Mark Patterson, now a player and assistant manager with Dover Athletic, has warned that the boots could kill if an artery was cut.

He recently had 12 stitches in a calf wound sustained in a legal tackle with a player wearing metal bladed boots.

FULL STORY IN TODAY'S KENT MESSENGER