Ivan Toney has pleaded not guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, with a provisional trial date of 12 June 2028 set at Southwark Crown Court. The England and Al-Ahli striker appeared on Thursday over an alleged incident at a nightclub in central London in December 2025.
The 30-year-old was granted unconditional bail. Reports of the hearing said Judge Christopher Hehir apologised for the lengthy wait, attributing it to pressure on the crown courts and an extensive backlog of cases.
The immediate outcome is therefore procedural rather than a determination of the allegations. Toney denies the charge, and the hearing did not establish whether a criminal offence had occurred.
What the allegations involve
The case concerns an encounter between Toney and Saber Da Silva at the 100 Wardour Street nightclub in Soho on 6 December 2025. According to accounts of an earlier hearing, prosecutors allege that a verbal confrontation escalated and that Toney struck Da Silva with his head and fists.
Injuries to Da Silva’s nose and fingers were alleged at that earlier appearance. The charge followed a Metropolitan Police investigation and was announced in July 2026.
One report adds that Toney’s defence accepts he caused an injury but maintains that he acted in self-defence. That account is not included in the other supplied reports and should be distinguished from the points they consistently establish: the charge, his not-guilty plea and the proposed trial date.
If that reported defence forms part of the trial, the dispute would concern not simply whether physical contact occurred, but whether Toney’s actions were legally justified. The brief accounts of the hearings do not provide enough evidence to assess that question. Neither the prosecution allegations nor the reported defence position should be treated as findings.
England implications remain uncertain
The reporting agrees on the legal position but differs in how firmly it describes the football consequences. Some coverage treats Toney’s participation at Euro 2028 as effectively excluded; other accounts describe his prospects as being at risk.
The more cautious interpretation is better supported by the information available. None of the reports supplies a decision from the Football Association or England manager Thomas Tuchel ruling Toney out of consideration. Nor do they establish a football suspension arising from Thursday’s hearing.
Unconditional bail is also a different matter from either sporting eligibility or selection. It describes Toney’s status while awaiting trial, not a guarantee that he will be chosen for England or a direction that he cannot be.
Toney was involved in England’s 2026 World Cup campaign and has made 10 senior international appearances. His absence from the subsequent squad is reported across the coverage, but no explanation from Tuchel is supplied. Linking that omission directly to the criminal case would therefore go beyond the evidence presented.
The distinction matters because three separate questions are being compressed into one: the outcome of the prosecution, Toney’s availability and the manager’s assessment of his footballing value. The reports establish uncertainty around his international future, not a final answer to all three.
A prolonged wait without a verdict
The clearest consequence of Thursday’s hearing is the duration of the unresolved case. The proposed trial falls roughly 20 months after the court appearance and around two and a half years after the alleged incident.
Reports consistently attribute that delay to court capacity. There is no basis in the supplied accounts to portray the wait as a tactic by Toney or as an indication of the strength of either side’s case.
There are also limits to how definitively the date should be described. One account explicitly calls it provisional, while others present it more firmly. One report anticipates a trial lasting three to four days, but the coverage does not establish an eventual verdict date.
For now, Toney remains an Al-Ahli player contesting a criminal charge. The responsible football assessment is that a lengthy legal process introduces uncertainty into his England prospects, while leaving both the allegations and any eventual selection decisions unresolved.