Austrian striker Guido Bergstaller suffered a fractured skull after he was attacked in the center of the country’s capital city, his club Rapid Vienna has said.
Rapid said the 35-year-old was expected to be out of action for several months after suffering a “severe head injury” over the weekend.
They say the former Cardiff City forward was attacked by an “unknown person” and fractured his skull when he collapsed after a “brutal beating”.
The 35-year-old, capped 26 times by Austria, was examined at the scene before being taken to hospital, where he will remain for the next few days.
In a statement, Rapid said it “trusts the responsible authorities to bring the as-yet-unknown perpetrator to justice soon”.
Bergstaller joined Cardiff from Rapid in 2014, becoming Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s second signing for the Welsh club.
He played just three times for the Bluebirds before joining German club Nürnberg.
Bergstler also played for Schalke and St. Pauli in Germany before returning to Rapid in 2022.
He was one of three Austrian players filmed by manager Ralf Ringnick singing homophobic chants in 2023 after a 3–0 win over city rivals Austria Vienna.