A security guard has been left blind in one eye following an attack outside a supermarket.

Gavin Wallis, 27, of Bevendean, Brighton, will have to have three metal plates inserted into his face to repair three serious fractures in his cheekbone.

He was on duty at the door of the Co-op in Lewes Road, Brighton, when he was punched by a man trying to get into the store.

Mr Wallis said the assault took place on Friday at 10.30pm, shortly before the shop closed.

His attacker arrived with another man in a silver saloon car which was driven the wrong way along Caledonian Road.

As he was telling them it had been changed to a one-way street, one man told him to move out of the way so he could get wine from the shop.

Mr Wallis said: "It was 10.30pm so I said no. He smelled of alcohol. He took a swing at me. I stepped back and he missed me. I banged on the window to get the manager's attention.

"I didn't really have time to think before he punched me again. The next thing I knew, I was waking up and the ambulance was there."

Mr Wallis spent Friday night at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and will not be able to return to work for at least two weeks.

He said: "He fractured my cheek bone in three places. It is severely bruised. He damaged my sinuses and temporarily damaged the nerve on the left side of my face.

"It is like when you go to the dentist and you have an injection.

"I can't see out of my left eye because it is bruised. Next week I am having an operation to put a plate in three places.

"There is no permanent damage but I have to put up with the pain."

Mr Wallis is an employee of security firm Securplan and usually works at the Co-op in London Road.

He has never before experienced such a serious attack at work.

He said: "People try to get away when you catch them shoplifting. They might catch you with punch but I have never been injured like this."

Richard Coles, manager of the Co-op in Lewes Road, said: "If there is a problem, that is what the security guard is there for. Unfortunately he got the rough end of it.

"The following night the Spar on the other side of the road got held up.

"Security guards are not there to put themselves in the firing line, they are there as a deterrent. But some people don't get deterred."

Mr Coles, who was not in the shop on Friday, said staff are sometimes faced with difficult customers but it was unusual for them to be assaulted.

Police today appealed for witnesses. The attacker was about 20, slim, with very short hair. He was wearing a black jumper with blue horizontal stripes.