A MAN could have metal plates in his face for life after his jaw was shattered by two thugs who mugged him on his way home.

Carl Taylor was returning home in the early hours of Sunday after an evening at Didcot’s Broadways pub when two men ran up behind him and knocked him to the ground in an unprovoked attack.

The pair grabbed his mobile phone — a Sony Ericsson W995 — and fled in the direction of Station Lane.

The attack happened at about 4am under the bridge in Cow Lane, near the Station Road junction.

Mr Taylor, 23, of Monks Lode, needing emergency surgery to realign his jaw.

Last night, police issued an urgent appeal for information.

Mr Taylor, a porter for a removal firm, said: “I live in Ladygrove so it made sense to cut back through Cow Lane bridge.

“I was trying to send a text message and the next thing I knew I’d been clouted round the head and I hit the floor.

“I managed to stagger to my feet and I saw two people running away.

“I didn’t lose consciousness, I just saw them running out the other end of the tunnel and turn left. All I could make out was one man in a hoodie.

“I didn’t see what they hit me with.

“I stood around for a few minutes trying to come to terms with what happened and then I started jogging home. I think the alcohol numbed the pain.”

Mr Taylor’s housemate Simon Smith, 28, called an ambulance and he was taken to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.

Doctors released him on Tuesday, but warned him the two metal plates in his face could be with him for life.

He said: “It has been a nightmare all for just a phone — I would have rather given it to them.

“I’ve got two metal plates and four metal hooks in my face and a bit of metal holding them together.

“I’m going back next week to see if the plates have to be permanent.

“It has made me step back and think. I’m going to definitely get a taxi home from the pub from now on. People should think twice about walking home on their own, young women should be careful, but even young men should be cautious too.”

Pc Graham Pink, of Didcot police, said: “The men are believed to be aged in their late teens to early 20s and one was wearing a dark hooded top.

“This was a totally unprovoked attack, which has left a man in hospital with broken jaw.

“I appeal to anyone who was in this area of Didcot in the early hours of this morning and saw two men acting suspiciously to contact police immediately.”

Anyone with information should call police on 08458 505505 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.