HIGH STAKES FOR CHOP

START TO SINK IN Howe's role at the Great North Run showed him the depth of feeling in the North-East

- BY LEE RYDER

MICHAEL CHOPRA has revealed he feared for his life after missing a derby day chance for Sunderland against his boyhood team Newcastle.

The Geordie boy says he had no choice but to leave the Stadium of Light in 2009 after turning up at the training ground and receiving death threats from furious Sunderland supporters.

What Chopra describes as an “impossible situation” erupted shortly after the Tyne-Wear derby in 2009, when he found himself bearing down on the Leazes End with a chance to shoot past Steve Harper.