As a gutsy defender, Andrew Durante is no stranger to blocking a shot - but the Wellington Phoenix skipper copped a shot of the literal variety while playing as a 17-year-old in Sydney.
The bizarre incident was brought to light on social media over the weekend with a newspaper clipping from 1999 resurfacing and revealing Durante was hit by a bullet during a match with UTS Olympic.
Still just a teenager at the time, it was Durante's dad that noticed his son had been shot with the trial game immediately abandoned.
"My dad lifted up my shirt and I had this blood dripping down my chest and he was like 'you've been shot'," Durante told Stuff.
"Then obviously there was a bit of a frenzy and everyone was screaming 'he's been shot, he's been shot'.
"The game got scrapped straight away and everyone ran to the changing rooms at the opposite end of the field."
Luckily for Durante, though the bullet came through his chest, it did so on an angle and ended up lodged harmlessly under his armpit.
The bullet was removed without complications with a disheartened Durante not allowed to keep the bullet as a souvenir.
"I asked if I could keep the bullet but they wouldn't let me, but that was it," he said.
The strange situation remains clouded in mystery too with the police never discovering who committed the shooting and Durante all too aware of how badly it could have ended.
"There was probably just some idiot up there shooting from his house or up on the street taking random pop shots at people," he said.
"I remember the players saying when they were interviewed that they heard things whistling past their heads but they didn't know what they were so it could have been so much worse than what it was but fortunately it wasn't that bad."
