A pub owner has apologised for an “unfortunate” accident that saw a young boy injured by a nail – and says efforts have been made to make sure it never happens again.

Tom Duthie was enjoying a family meal at The Stag pub in Flackwell Heath on May 30 when his son Oliver, one, caught his face on a nail.

The nail was sticking out of a gate post to the children’s play area at the Heath End Road pub.

Mr Duthie posted about the incident – which left Oliver with a cut above his eye – on social media, which led to angry calls for the pub to take responsibility.

The father said a manager refused to leave the kitchen to speak to him after he complained his son’s injury.

Speaking to the Bucks Free Press, Sam Patel, owner of The Stag along with other local pubs including The Mayflower in Hazlemere, said there was an issue of miscommunication and has apologised for the incident.

Mr Patel said: “It’s a really unfortunate incident. Initially the manager was told it was just a graze and let the staff deal with it. A staff member went out there straight away and made sure it was safe.

“We had maintenance come round the next day to do a full check. We have done a safety check and informed the brewery of the incident.

“We asked [the family] to come inside so we could make sure they were all okay.

“People are making it out like I don’t care, but I’m not like that. Customers who know me from The Mayflower know I’m not like that. My own kids play in the play area. It was just very unfortunate.”

He added that the gate post with the nails in was in an “awkward” place that was hard to see, so the potential danger had been missed by staff initially – but added that they have now done everything possible to make it safe.

He said: “We check it every day now without fail. We put out hands up, it shouldn’t have happened. There was a miscommunication issue because the manager thought it was a graze. We have said from now on, if someone wants to speak to the manager, come out straight away.”

A spokesman for Buckinghamshire Council said: “We are sorry to hear about this incident. We were not informed of the incident but based on the information that has been provided it would not need to be reported to us formally under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR).

“Although this incident does not meet the incident selection criteria, an officer from the team (as the health and safety enforcing authority for pubs) will visit it to ensure that all areas are safe for use by all visitors.”