A gay rugby player who may never be able to return to playing sports following an unprovoked homophobic attack last month said the levels of homophobia in Ireland are akin to living in the Middle Ages. E van Somers, (23) appeared on the last ever episode of RTE One’s ‘Claire Byrne Live’ programme last night to describe his ordeal and his ever-present fear of being attacked again because he is gay. Wearing a Controlled Ankle Motion or CAM boot on his ankle that was shattered when he was savagely attacked while on Dublin’s Dame Street after a night out at a local gay bar, he revealed that his now has plates and pins in his ankle and may never be able to play sports again. "I’m not sure I’ll get back to what I was doing before,” he said of his physical injuries following the assault on April 10, including an eye injury after he was punched in the face. But he said the psychological impact of the attack continues to haunt him. "I’d be quicker to look over my shoulder now. I am definitely more paranoid and aware of my surroundings,” he said of going on a night out in Dublin. He described how he was trying to flag down a taxi on Dame Street in the early hours after leaving The George bar and a thug came up to him, called him a homophobic slur and punched him hard in the face. He fell to the ground and the only thing he remembered following the assault was sitting on the kerb and seeing “my ankle was facing to the left. It didn’t look like it was connected to anything,” he said of his injury. He said the attack in modern Ireland is hard to fathom. "You didn’t expect to leave a gay bar, walk down the road and get punched in the face for being gay,” he said, Daily Digest Newsletter Get ahead of the day with the morning headlines at 7. 30am and Fionnán Sheahan's exclusive take on the day's news every afternoon, with our free daily newsletter. Enter email address This field is required Sign Up "In 2022 in Ireland, it’s weird. It’s like the Middle Ages it feels like. ” Meanwhile, broadcaster and DJ Stephen Byrne also spoke of similar acts of aggression towards him for being a gay man. He recalled how he was walking over the O’Connell Street bridge one night in 2012 and a man came up to him and also uttered a homophobic slur before punching him in the face. "I just got up and ran,” he told Claire Byrne. Then just over two years ago, he was walking to his home in Phibsborough from the Dublin city centre when “I felt a punch to the back of my head and fell” and realised he had been assaulted by three men. He said it is reprehensible that he had to ask himself “what gave me away?” "I was thinking of my outfit, the way I was walking, even if he could hear the music I was listening to (on his ear buds), “ he said. The attack required him to have extensive reconstructive dental surgery. He said the incidents he experienced are so similar to what happened to Evan “it hit me like a knife. ” Evan, meanwhile, said despite the successful outcome of the 2015 Marriage Referendum allowing the LGBTQ community to marry, “in 2022 we can get married but we can’t walk down the road. ”.