Sportsman turned actor Vinnie Jones yesterday told his side of the story after being accused of attacking a man in a bar on Thursday.

According to Jones, he only punched 24-year-old Juan Barrera after he first broke a glass in his face, insisting that he was not the one who provoked the scuffle.

"The fact is ? someone tried to blind me. Would you not be p***** off if someone tried to blind you for life?" said the 43-year-old actor.

After being hit in the face with the glass, Vinnie was rushed to hospital, where he had to wait for a plastic surgeon to fly in from Los Angeles to remove the shards of broken glass. He subsequently received 48 stitches to fix the cuts on his face.

Whilst at a charity golf game in California, Vinnie furthermore gave his account of what happened in the lead up to the violent brawl at the Wiley's Tavern in downtown Sioux Falls.

"I was in South Dakota with a crowd of mates for a pheasant shoot," Jones explained.

"We stopped off for a few beers and didn't think anything of it. I arrived at the boozer and was signing autographs and doing pictures.

"We were having a laugh with a group of lads at the pool table ? whose girlfriends I was doing pictures for.

"They started having a joke about my films. The next thing I knew I was on the ground with a glass in my face. It was over in seconds. The blood was pouring out.

"The attack came from nowhere. I was stunned by it. All the way through it, someone was shouting: 'Knife!'

"It was like a car crash. It all seemed to happen so quickly."

According to The Sun, Barrera was last night still in custody, while Jones was arrested but subsequently released by Sioux Falls police. However, if found guilty of he assault charges against him, Jones could receive as much as a year-long jail sentence.