English soccer club Derby fires captain in car-crash fallout

DERBY, England (AP) - English soccer club Derby has fired captain Richard Keogh for gross misconduct following an internal disciplinary hearing into a car accident.

The 33-year-old defender suffered a knee injury that has ruled him out for more than a year after he was involved in a car accident with teammates Tom Lawrence and Mason Bennett in September.

Derby, which plays in the second-tier League Championship, previously fined Lawrence and Bennett six weeks' wages, the maximum allowed contractually.

The pair had initially fled from the scene of the crash, which happened after a team bonding day that ended in a pub. They returned about 45 minutes later and were arrested.

Both players pleaded guilty in court to drunken driving and failing to stop at the scene of an accident. They were ordered to do 180 hours of unpaid work and were disqualified from driving for two years.

Derby says it "will not tolerate any of its players or staff behaving in a manner which puts themselves, their colleagues, and members of the general public at risk of injury or worse, or which brings the club into disrepute."

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