RADIO Merseyside drive-time presenter Simon Hoban is in hospital in Germany after being badly attacked in Hamburg.
Simon has sent a message to his friends, via Facebook, saying he has been in hospital for five days and is undergoing reconstructive surgery to help repair facial injuries.
Radio Merseyside posted a message on its Facebook site saying: “We're sending all our best wishes to Drivetime presenter Simon Hoban - he's in hospital in Germany after being seriously assaulted while on holiday there. He's going to fine but it was a very nasty attack and it'll be a few weeks before he's back on air. Get well soon, Simon! We miss you.”
The 37-year-old is said to have been on a short break in the city when he was set upon. Hamburg surgeons have put six metal plates in his left cheek.
Simon Hoban 2Simon, a graduate from the University of Liverpool, returned to his roots - and a job at the BBC in Hanover Street - after spending a few years in other parts of the country. His first job was working with his dad on a savoury meat van in Liverpool.
"I used to have to sit in the freezer compartment in the back of the van at five in the morning counting up sausage rolls to make sure the order was right. It was the best incentive to stay on in education I could have wanted," he once told me.
That took him to Liverpool University to study music, and he later joined a cabaret band doing the club circuit on Merseyside.
"It was a great laugh, and I had to quickly learn the traditions and foibles of those fine institutions. I spent Millennium Eve in a social club in Huyton playing Mustang Sally. It doesn't get much better..."
Turning his attention to journalism and radio, his first ever assignment was handling the breaking news of huge job losses at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, "I had a microphone, a notepad, and a crowd of very angry shipyard workers in front of me.
"It was a baptism of fire."
