Republic of Ireland soccer player Jeff Hendrick has been found not guilty of violent disorder by a jury at the Circuit Criminal Court.
The 25-year-old had pleaded not guilty to violent disorder at Harcourt Street in Dublin in October 2013.
A co-accused Jonathan Doran, 26, of Kilmore Close, Artane, was found guilty of violent disorder.
A charge of assault against Mr Doran was dropped this morning after legal argument.
Mr Doran had admitted chasing Darren McDermott down a lane and sitting on him but denied taking part in the assault.
The court heard Mr Hendrick was removed from a Dublin nightclub after becoming aggressive towards Mr McDermott.
He said Mr Hendrick and others were outside the club when he left and he ran to a waiting taxi but was later pulled from the taxi by the footballer.
He was then chased by a number of other people and assaulted.
He suffered multiple fractures to his jaw and had his teeth smashed.
He had emergency surgery for his injuries and is still receiving medical attention, he said.
He said he held Mr Hendrick responsible for what happened to him because he had started the aggression in the nightclub and had pulled him from the taxi before others chased him and beat him up.
Defence counsel for Mr Hendrick said what happened in the night club was just drunk men shouting at each other and that was not a crime.
Sean Gillane said Mr Hendrick could not have run after the taxi because he had a leg injury at the time.
He said if he could have run that night he would have been chasing Germans on the pitch.
The defence claimed Mr McDermott had made a nuisance of himself in the night club and had slagged off the Irish team after a defeat to Germany.
They said at that point Mr Hendrick wanted Mr McDermott out of his company and told him to f*** off.
He said what happened to Mr McDermott that night down the lane was indefensible but Mr Hendrick had nothing to do with it.
The only reason they were in court was because he was an international soccer player, he added.
He said Mr McDermott had an agenda to destroy Mr Hendrick's career and was taking a civil case against him.
After deliberating for almost half an hour, the jury at the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin returned unanimous verdicts.
Jonathan Doran will be sentenced on 28 July.
