‘Eyes swollen up like a prizefighter’ – Why Wrexham co-owner Rob McElhenney looked like he had gone 12 rounds with Tyson Fury during record-breaking promotion push

Rob McElhenney has explained why he looked like a battered “prizefighter” during Wrexham’s record-breaking promotion push in 2022-23.

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• Red Dragons landed National League title
• Plenty of drama taken in along the way
• Hollywood stars left dazed and confused

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  WHAT HAPPENED?

  The Red Dragons enjoyed a season to remember last time out as they swept their way to the National League title. They collected more than 100 points and scored a century of goals, but were pushed all the way to the finish by Notts County.

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• THE BIGGER PICTURE

  The stress of a dramatic fight for honours took its toll on all concerned, with hearts racing in North Wales on a regular basis. McElhenney and fellow co-chairman Ryan Reynolds were dragged along for the ride, with the Hollywood duo losing their cool despite being accustomed to performing under intense pressure.

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  DID YOU KNOW?

  McElhenney was left looking like he had gone 12 rounds with world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury when attending a meeting with County that saw Ben Foster save a stoppage-time penalty in a 3-2 win, with the ‘It’s Always in Sunny in Philadelphia’ actor admitting to feeling dazed and confused as what was supposed to be a fun sporting project began to impact his health.

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• WHAT THEY SAID

  McElhenney has told while casting his mind back to the epic win that carried the Red Dragons a long way towards their eventual coronation – with the events of that day being captured on camera in the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ documentary: “You, intellectually, know what happened. But you emotionally, almost forget. With my nervous system, I still feel the anxiety from the end of the Notts County game. I’ve mentioned in one of the episodes that I had a massive double stye. You can see them in the documentary. My eyes are swollen up like I’m a prizefighter. That was simply due to the stress. In watching some of the footage, I felt a lot of those things coming back, even though I knew it was a happy ending.”