How jacket dumped in toilet sparked infamous pig's head prank in Stoke City changing room
Jon Walters has owned up to prank
Peter SmithSports reporter
Former Stoke City player Brek Shea with the pig's head which caused so much offence to Kenwyne Jones back in 2013. (Image: Brek Shea / Instagram)
It was a prank gone wrong with a farcical mix-up that has gone down in Stoke City folklore.
A pig's head appeared in Matthew Etherington's training ground locker in the spring of 2013, sparking an escalating series of comebacks which ended with a brick being put through Glenn Whelan's car windscreen.
Jon Walters has now publicly confessed his major in the day – and what had gone on before to get to that point.
The former forward was a guest on TalkSport's Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast this morning and relayed how it all unravelled.
The prank which prompted the pig's head
Jon Walters said: "The pranks were going off in the dressing room at Stoke and there was a gradual build up.
"I got the blame for a lot. My coat got put down a toilet – and not a clean toilet either – and I thought, 'I'm going to have to get my own back here, I can't let that happen.'
"So I went home and I was racking my brain for what I could do, something that no one would ever be able to get me back on."
A pig's head and some rainbow trout
Walters: "I decided to get a pig's head, brought it into the changing ground and put it in Matty Etherington's locker. I put his clothes on top and put some rainbow trout in his shoes and in his wash bag.
"We went out for training and Matty went in early. You normally do a bit of finishing after training but Matty went in early and I sprinted in.
"There was only me and Matty in the changing room. I sat down on the seat and Matty goes in his locker and nearly threw up. He started going mad and I was laughing to myself thinking, surely he knows it's me."
Jon Walters, Kenwyne Jones and Matty Etherington were involved in a series of escalating pranks and comebacks in the Stoke City changing room. (Image: Shaun Smith)
The mix-up…
Walters: "But he turns around and gone, 'Whelo.' Glenn Whelan. 'Whelo, the little so and so.'
"So he's got the pig's head, wraps it in Whelo's jeans and puts it in his locker. I'm sitting there thinking it was brilliant, waiting for Glenn Whelan to come in and go mad.
"Then Glenn Whelan goes out of the changing room and Kenwyne Jones comes in, opens his locker and there are his jeans, Kenwyne Jones's jeans, wrapped in a pig's head. He sat next to Glenn Whelan.
"Kenwyne is going mad. I've sat there and said, 'Oh look, Kenwyne, it was me. I brought it in for Matty, he thought it was Glenn and put it in Glenn's locker but it's not Glenn's locker, it's your locker… so Kenwyne has gone out and got a brick and put a brick through Glenn Whelan's car window because all he's heard is Glenn Whelan's name – then drives home.
"Now Glenn Whelan is going mad saying he's going to have to go to Kenwyne's house. Kenwyne misses the next game, gets fined, we all sort of get fined. I got a suspended fine and it all came out. That was the story of the pig's head."
The reaction of other players
Peter Crouch mentioned the pig's head saga in his book How To Be A Footballer.
And he told the Sentinel: "I didn't touch the pig's head.
"I was involved in quite a bit of it in the early days actually, deep heat stuff and various moving of jackets and shoes.
"With the pig's head, I would have got involved, but I was out training and when I came in it was all kicking off.
"It was funny, but it escalated and there was a couple of big fines involved, so it did get out of hand, but looking back on it, it was very funny!"
Brek Shea posted the photograph above on Instagram.
Walters and Robert Huth belatedly owned up to a prank the previous week which saw retirement-bound Michael Owen's car covered in eggs and flour.
Michael Owen's car after Stoke teammates saw him into retirement.
Crouch recalled on his podcast earlier this season: "I remember when Michael Owen was at Stoke, we were staying at a hotel. Someone had wrapped his entire car in eggs and flour. No one knew who it was for months and everyone was trying to get to the bottom of it. He was fuming, he actually left at the end of the season.
"Then we got a picture, I think Jon Walters and Robert Huth were at a wedding, and they both just sent a picture to the lads group of them both doing that, 'it was us!'. Fingers in the air announced 'it was us'."