Brentford defender Harlee Dean said coming to the aid of stricken eight-year-old Ted Starkey was all in  days work for the strapping centre back.

The youngster was hit by a car outside Brentford’s Griffin Park ground after the Sky Bet Championship win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Dean, who was leaving the ground after the final whistle, saw the incident and rushed to help, running back in to the ground to get the club’s medical staff to assist.

Club doctor Matt Stride was able to give initial first aid before an ambulance arrived and Starkey, a season ticket holder with the Bees, was taken to hospital.

The young Bees fan was given the VIP treatment when he vistied Brentford's training ground with his dad and grandad to the meet Dean and his team-mates on Thursday.

“I just did what anyone else would have done," said the former Southampton centre back, who was sent off in last Saturday's 2-1 triumph.

"I certainly don’t think I’m a hero. I was just walking home from the match, heard a screech and then a child scream. I just wanted to get someone to help.

“He seems good now. I don’t know if I would be the same if I had been hit by a car a few day ago. He has met the lads and watched training. I will also be giving him a pair of my boots. Hopefully. he left here with happy memories.”

Starkey was given a new Brentford away kit to replace the one damaged during the incident, and a pair of football boots signed by Dean.

And Stride reckoned the outcome could easily have been so different. 

"Harlee does not think he did much but it was quite a chaotic scene and he was able to think logically that someone had been hurt and he knew there was a doctor nearby and to get them," he added.

“It was a very unfortunate incident, but in some ways Ted is quite lucky to only have minor injuries.

"He was hit by a car at around 25mph, thrown 15 feet up and landed on concrete. This also shows us that the speed limit is 30mph for a reason.

"As a doctor you treat everyone the same but to know I have helped a fellow Brentford fan that had been to the match makes it even better for me.”