Jack Charlton breaks hip in fall at home

FOOTBALL legend Jack Charlton was recovering in hospital last night after undergoing hip replacement surgery following a fall down the stairs at his home.

Charlton, 76, who, along with his brother Bobby, was part of the England team that beat West Germany 4-2 in the 1966 World Cup final, had the operation at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.

His son John said yesterday: “He’s fine. He had the operation this morning and the operation was fine.

“Everything went well. Basically, as everybody else would, he is just recovering from the anaesthetic.”

The former Leeds United defender broke his hip in the fall at his home in Morpeth, Northumberland, on Thursday night while his wife, Pat, was out. He eventually managed to get to a telephone to alert his son.

John Charlton said: “When he rang me, he told me he had fallen and damaged his hip, and said, ‘You had better come around’.

“But it was surreal. When I got there, he was sitting in a chair watching the telly, although we then realised his hip was broken.”

Charlton snr famously led the Republic of Ireland to successive World Cup tournaments as manager in 1990 and 1994.