RUGBY player Antony Blackmore has kept a secret from his teammates – he survived an attack by an 11ft crocodile.

The 28-year-old’s story was only revealed when a Channel 4 crew turned up to film him playing for Melksham last week.

He will feature in the documentary describing the near-fatal attack, which took place in Lake Malawi last February. Mr Blackmore, an English teacher at John Bentley School in Calne, was working as a volunteer teacher there.

He said: “It was a boiling hot day and I decided to go out on my own for a swim. I was about 100 yards off the shore treading water and without any sort of warning I just got ripped down and started to get rolled around.

“It was a very strange feeling, one part of my brain was quite sure I was going to die at that point, I was thinking ‘this is it now’.

“By chance I struck it (the crocodile) around the eye with my other foot. I felt it slow down, ripped my foot out of its mouth and swam to the surface.”

He clambered on to a rock and was rescued by boat. He was airlifted to Kenya and had surgery and 60 stitches to save his left foot.

He has now recovered well enoguh to turn out for Melksham’s 1st XV.

He said: “Since they found out there’s been a lot of mickey-taking, I’ve had a lot of stick, but it’s all been light-hearted stuff. They said ‘you can fight off a crocodile but you can’t get anywhere near the ball’, that sort of thing.”

He was approached by Channel 4 who wanted to talk to him about his experience, and the crew filmed him playing in Melksham’s 31-36 defeat to Wimborne.

He said: “The programme describes the pressures of rising populations and the fact that more and more people are taking tourist trips around the world. I didn’t mind talking about it because I feel I was incredibly lucky.”