A professional footballer who turned street mugger when his career was ruined by a vicious assault was jailed for three years.

Liam Moore’s promising future with a Yorkshire club, the identity of which was not revealed in Court, stalled when he was assaulted and his teeth knocked out.

Moore, 23, of Longfield Drive, East Bowling, Bradford, was unable to play because of the attack, his solicitor advocate, Ian Hudson, told Bradford Crown Court yesterday. Moore pleaded guilty to robbing a student and a schoolboy of their phones and stealing a phone from a third young man.

The court heard he punched the boy in Leeds city centre on November 25 last year and robbed his phone. He struck again in Leeds on January 12, snatching a phone from a student.

On bail, Moore put his arm round the neck of a Buttershaw College student on February 3, pushed him into a fence and made off with his phone.

The court heard he had convictions for robbery in 2007 and 2008.

Mr Hudson said the victims’ injuries were minor and Moore acted alone.

He played professional football until an assailant knocked out his teeth and damaged his jaw.

Moore had been in custody since February 10.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told Moore: “You have great potential as a professional footballer.”

But the muggings were planned and determined and the “nasty” Bradford robbery was committed on bail.