Soccer-Striker ko'd after arm-wrestling before playoff match

LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - English fourth division striker Lee Thorpe faces a miserable summer after breaking his arm in three places while arm-wrestling with a Rochdale team mate on the bus taking the team to a playoff match at Darlington.

Thorpe would have missed Saturday's match in any case because of a dead leg but now faces surgery on the arm injury, the club said.

"It was an unfortunate, freak accident occuring during something we have been doing all season," manager Keith Hill told the club's Web site (www.rochdaleafc.premiumtv.co.uk).

"No-one is to blame and it is certainly not that we are unprofessional but it is not something we will be doing again. We have learnt a valuable lesson from what might occur."

Rochdale, seeking promotion from League Two (fourth division), lost the first leg of their playoff semi-final with Darlington 2-1 after conceding a last-minute goal. The return leg is at Rochdale on Saturday with the final at Wembley on May 26.

Rochdale have been in the bottom tier of the English Football League for 34 years.