Nicklas Bendtner begins 50-day sentence for assaulting taxi driver

Bendtner will return to Rosenborg for the start of the season in March

Bendtner was sentenced at court in Copenhagen (Getty)

Ex-Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner has begun serving a 50-day sentence for assaulting a taxi driver in September.

Bendtner was caught on CCTV hitting the driver in the face after leaving the cab without paying, but the 30-year-old claimed to be acting in self-defence after a bottle was thrown in his direction.

Bendtner will serve the sentence from home and posted a picture of his tag online and took to Instagram to address the incident.

“Of course I wish it hadn’t happened,” Bendtner said. “Both for me and for the taxi driver involved who subsequently lost his job.”

“No matter how he [the driver] behaved and what he said, it’s not something I wanted for him. There were undoubtedly many other and better ways that each of us could have resolved our disagreement.

“If I had just paid the amount the taxi meter showed, my girlfriend and I might not have been pursued by a car with an enraged driver behind the wheel.

“If only I hadn’t made this decision, which I made in a split of a second while everything was boiling over.”

Bendtner dropped his appeal of the sentence in late November so that he could “focus on his club and family” and will return to Rosenborg for the start of the season in March.

“I will probably never agree with the City Court’s judgment, but I have dropped my appeal because I would like to be ready for the season with Rosenborg,” Bendtner continued as he heaped praise on the club for sticking by him.

“Fortunately, it is never too late to learn and prepare for the future, and so I have decided to gather the stories that did both good and evil to me for almost 31 years.

“This is not the story of me driven by speculation and sensation, but by my strong memory.”