Newcastle's Dedic Stopped by Armed Police After Bow-and-Arrows Scare in Northumberland

It was the kind of afternoon that sounds made up until the police statement lands. Newcastle United defender Amar Dedic, out for a walk with a friend in the Northumberland countryside, found himself at the centre of a full armed-police operation on Wednesday after a passer-by spotted the pair carrying a bow and arrows near a reservoir and raised the alarm.

Northumbria Police said they received the report shortly after 1.55pm. Two men had been seen walking along a track by the reservoir on Military Road in the Harlow Hill area, a quiet rural stretch west of Newcastle. What followed was anything but quiet. At least six police cars were sent to the area, including armed response units, and the two men were eventually tracked down in a vehicle at Darras Hall, around seven miles from where they had first been seen. Officers searched the car and seized the bow and arrows.

The force has not named Dedic in its statement, but BBC Sport has confirmed the 24-year-old Bosnia-Herzegovina international was the player involved, and that he had no ill intention and fully co-operated with officers throughout. "At this stage, it is understood they were for recreational use and there was no threat to the public," Northumbria Police said, adding that enquiries into the circumstances were still continuing.

It is the sort of story that writes its own punchline — a Premier League footballer, a bow and arrows, a reservoir in Northumberland — but the reality was more mundane and, for Dedic, more unsettling. There is no suggestion he was hunting, no suggestion he threatened anyone, and no indication he has been charged with any offence. Reports say Newcastle goalkeeper Mark Gillespie and former defender Paul Dummett arrived at the scene while police were speaking to Dedic, and the Guardian reports the club is unlikely to take disciplinary action over the episode.

The timing only adds to the strangeness. The incident happened on Wednesday, two days after Dedic had played in Newcastle's 1-0 home defeat by Everton on Monday night. He joined the Magpies from Benfica in August for a fee in the region of £30 million, and has settled quickly into Eddie Howe's side as a modern, attack-minded full-back, comfortable carrying the ball forward and equally happy defending one-on-one. This was not a night out or a training-ground row. It was a walk in the countryside that turned, through no fault of his own beyond the optics of what he was carrying, into a police matter.

For Newcastle, the relief is that the matter appears to be closed almost as quickly as it opened. Dedic is expected to be available when the Magpies travel to Fulham on Saturday, and there is no indication the incident will cost him his place. The club has not commented publicly, which is understandable: there is very little to say about a player who went for a walk and came home with his archery equipment confiscated and a story he will be hearing about in dressing rooms for years.

Still, it is a reminder of how quickly ordinary life can turn strange for a recognisable footballer. A bow and arrows in a field in Northumberland is, to most people, an odd sight. To a member of the public who did not know who was carrying them, it was enough to call the police. Dedic did nothing wrong, the police did their job, and the only casualty is a set of arrows that will not be coming back. Newcastle will hope the rest of his week is rather less eventful.