Bolton Wanderers signing Chris Eagles has concerns with their Premier League opener at QPR going ahead.
The midfielder has questioned the wisdom of going ahead with the game after his family were caught up in the worst of the rioting in London.
Eagles, the former Manchester United winger who joined from Burnley last month, said: "If you're playing you never know what might happen. They could ransack the pitch.
"You don't know what they're capable of. We want to be safe. If a fire blows up you could get caught in the middle of it."
Eagles revealed that some family members had been forced to leave home because of the unrest in London, and said that he also witnessed the violence in Manchester when he visited a friend on Tuesday night.
He added: "It was frightening. I saw people jumping through the windows of Starbucks and H&M. They were just kicking in the windows and running through, coming out with stuff underneath their arms. I couldn't believe it.
"It all started where my auntie lives in Tottenham and my mum's cousins all live in Lewisham. They've all now gone to my mum's in Watford because it is too dangerous.
"People were rolling cars down the road and putting them in walls. It is scary. My mum's cousins have lived there all their lives. They were on the phone to her the other day crying. They've never seen anything like it.
"It's scary for the elderly people who are seeing their city getting ruined. But it was the same for me when I went into Manchester. The damage they did was frightening because we have got to live there."