JAMAICAN striker Ricardo Fuller was arrested and later received bail on Sunday morning on suspicion of assault after an incident at a nightclub. Stoke City Football Club admitted on their website that Fuller was arrested by police in the early hours of Sunday morning in the Hanley suburb of Stoke.

“The club can confirm that Fuller was arrested in the early hours of Sunday morning following an incident in a nightclub in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. We will be making no further comment at this time,” said an official club statement.

A spokeswoman for Staffordshire Police said officers were called to the nightclub at about 1:00 am. She said the 21-year-old victim suffered minor facial injuries and did not need hospital treatment.

Almost one year ago, on February 25, 2009, Fuller was arrested on suspicion of driving offences and had his vehicle seized.

Fuller, 30, the current poster boy on the club’s website in which he could be seen holding a picture of himself with the words “I am proud to be a Potter”, had played in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Blackburn without scoring.

To date, he has only one league goal to his credit after scoring 11 times in 2008-09 season.

On January 24, he scored twice in Stoke’s 3-1 FA Cup victory over Arsenal.

It seems that during the winter season, Fuller is prone to incidents as in December 2008, he slapped club captain Andy Griffin during a match against West Ham and was red-carded. The Trotters went on to lose that game 1-2.

He was suspended for three games and it was reported that he was fined two weeks’ salary (£20,000) by the club.

Fuller in his response said he told Griffin to “clear the ball out” which led to an equalising goal but Griffin “was just very rude and disrespectful”.

Fuller joined the Potters in 2006 for a fee of £500,000 after representing six other clubs in the United Kingdom with over 80 goals to his name.

He has so far played for Scottish club Heart, English outfits Crystal Palace, Southampton, Preston, Portmouth and Ipswich Town since 2001.

Fuller, the former Camperdown Manning Cupper and Tivoli Gardens player, made his senior Reggae Boy debut in 1999 playing 60 times and scoring only 11 goals.

In October 2008, while training for a World Cup Qualifier against Mexico in Kingston, Fuller was involved in a bust-up with teammates and brothers Demar and Damion Stewart.

Fuller reacted angrily to a series of tough challenges from defender Demar and the two exchanged heated words, which led to a physical exchange, at which point, Demar’s older brother, Damion, got involved.

As a result of the incident, the players were fined two-third of their match fees by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), but Fuller showed the same fighting qualities and scored the winning goal as Jamaica defeated Mexico 1-0.

Another Jamaica striker, Marlon King, is currently serving prison time for breaking a young woman’s nose in a bar incident in London last year.