A TEENAGER who was kicked so badly by thugs that he had footprints on his face has spoken for the first time about the attack.

David Miller spent three weeks in hospital after he was the victim of what he says was a vicious unprovoked assault in Red Bank Road, Radcliffe, last month.

And the 17-year-old, now back with his family in New Lane, Breightmet, told how as he lay on the floor being kicked in the head, he asked his attackers why they were doing it.

For a reply one of the yobs booted him in the right eye.

The former Withins School pupil had been on a trip to the shops with his friends in Radcliffe when up to ten youths jumped him.

He said: "I was walking down the road with my friend when I felt a bang on the back of my leg.

"I fell to my knees. Then I felt a blow to the shoulder and I fell to the floor. I just curled up and tried to cover my face. I thought I'm not going to let them do any damage to me. I asked them why they were doing it and I got a foot in my eye. But then I must have passed out because the next thing I knew I woke up in hospital." David did not regain consciousness until three days after the attack.

He was stamped on so hard, it was possible to see the brand of training shoes the thugs had worn in the footprints on his head and back.

He was taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital before being transferred to an intensive care bed at Blackburn Royal Infirmary.

David, who was born in Scotland, said: "When I came around, I thought I was back at my old home in Glasgow.

"I just didn't know where I was for the first week. I just couldn't remember what had happened, then it suddenly came back to me."

The teenager, who works at Elsworth Timber Merchants near his home, is now suffering from short-term memory loss, headaches, lacks co-ordination and is extremely weak from lying in a hospital bed for so long.

He used to be a keep-fit fanatic and had even cycled from his work to Radcliffe to see his best pal Andy Bladen on the day he was set upon.

But now David can barely walk to the shops only 20 yards from his home. He doesn't even have the strength to take his beloved pet dog Wookie, aged one, for a walk.

He will undergo weeks of physiotherapy. His parents are determined to give him all the support they can and his mum is taking him on holiday to North Wales for a week to help his recovery.

Dad Ian, 49, said: "He is very weak. Even talking takes it out of him and he goes pale with exhaustion. But we are hoping that a ten day break by the sea will do him a power of good. "

Doctors will have to wait until it is clear whether there will be any lasting damage to his brain.

Detectives from Whitefield CID have interviewed eleven young people aged between 15 and 18 who were released on bail.