Middlesbrough midfielder hitches ride with fans back home after missing train
Middlesbrough midfielder Marten de Roon wound up scrambling to find a way home after Saturday's match against West Ham, but luckily some Boro fans came to his aid. De Roon was called for a doping test following the 1-1 draw (a game where he picked up a booking, too), and missed the usual ride back up to Middlesbrough with the rest of his team.
So de Roon hopped a different train up to the Middlesbrough area, but once he was back at the Darlington station he still needed a lift to his car a few miles away. Fortunately, de Roon made some acquaintances on the solo train ride up from London; Boro fan Lloyd Cooper and his friends.
They saw de Roon on the train and wondered why he was alone, then again at the Darlington station standing in a taxi line. Cooper jokingly told the driver of their ride to pull up to de Roon so he could offer him a lift, but then the Dutchman actually obliged.
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"He would have been there hours in that queue so we got in our minibus a bit further up and as a bit of a crack I told the driver to drive towards him and I'll ask him to get in," Cooper told the Gazzette. "He jumped in and we took him to Hurworth for his car."
Cooper, 22, said de Roon was a gracious stowaway, paying the driver £60 for the assistance and also stopping to snap a pic with Cooper and his friends.
With the booking, the drug test and the train mix-up, it was a Saturday full of a series of misfortunes for de Roon, but ultimately there was a happy ending for the 25-year-old. Hopefully next time Boro will have a car waiting when they ditch one of their players.
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