Taekwondo Olympian Jack Woolley shares hospital ordeal after brutal attack in Dublin city centre

An Irish Olympic taekwondo athlete has revealed how he was brutally attacked in Dublin city centre.

Jack Woolley, who became Ireland's first-ever taekwondo Olympian at Tokyo 2020, was left hospitalised in the early hours of Saturday morning after being attacked on the street by one of a group of people.

He opened up about his ordeal while waiting for surgery.

The 22-year-old shared images on his Instagram account showing himself covered in blood and slumped on the ground.

He was then taken to St James's Hospital, where he said he would require plastic surgery to a lip wound.

Hours later, Woolley shared a string of videos on Instagram in which he can be seen with a bandage on his top lip as he waits for surgery in the hospital.

In a clip shared at 2.40pm on Saturday, hours after the attack, Woolley said: "I'm still waiting on surgery. I’ve been here over 12 hours,” before he turned the camera to show how he was waiting on a hospital bed in the corridor.

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At around 8pm, he shared another set of videos where he explained that he would not be discharged for the night.

He said: "I've been moved to a ward and then the people came to see me and said you're not getting done tonight so you're going to have to stay overnight."

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"I'll get done in the morning, hopefully," he added.

He said: "The food in the hospital isn’t running at the moment so I can just have like tea. I can have a bag of chocolate buttons. They’re not going to take too much to chew so should be alright.

"It's not ideal. I don’t like them but still we’ll brush that over.

"We call but not one comes in. It is what it is. I’ll be alright. I’ll get out tomorrow."

Wooley also shared a picture of himself trying to drink from a cup with the caption, “This is harder than I thought."

On social media, he had earlier explained what had happened during the attack.

He wrote how he went for a meal with his friend, followed by a bar for a couple of drinks.

Woolley said: "Heading back along the River Liffey a gang of roughly eight to 12 men and women in their 20s began violently attacking people along the broadwalk.

"Unfortunately, I was the victim to these random attacks as I was just walking by before I was punched in the face by one of these group members."

He said he was punched once with his assailant then saying: “my mistake wrong person” before running down the road and attacking more people.

Wooley added: "Thank you all again for the support and kind messages. I hope for a speedy recovery. It's been a tough couple of months."

It comes after Woolley made history when he qualified for the Olympics.

His profile rose after he gave an emotional interview following his defeat to Argentinian Lucas Guzman.

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