Australian soccer international Kevin Muscat has settled a STG250,000 ($A600,000) payout to an opponent whose leg was shattered in a tackle he made in an English FA Cup game six years ago.

In offering the settlement, however, Muscat still maintained his innocence in the tackle on Charlton midfielder Matty Holmes, who claimed the incident ended his career in top-flight soccer.

Holmes, 33, had claimed close to STG2.5 million ($A6 million) in damages in Britain's High Court for assault and battery as well as lost earnings.

He said his career was ruined by Muscat's tackle in Charlton's FA Cup fourth round replay against Wolverhampton in February 1998. It left him needing four operations, a steel rod in his left leg and skin grafts from his buttocks to repair a hole in his ankle.

But lawyers for Muscat and Wolverhampton claimed the tackle was not negligent or deliberately reckless and that a hamstring injury 15 months after the incident was the true reason Holmes was forced to retire.

"The payment is made without admission of liability," Muscat's counsel Richard Lewis told Mr Justice Royce at the High Court.

With costs, the total bill will come to about STG750,000 ($A1.8 million), payable by Muscat's and Wolverhampton's insurers.

Muscat, who attended court even though he did not need to, did not speak to the media but his barrister John Smith maintained Holmes' injuries were an unfortunate accident.

"If our settlement was not accepted, it would have been contested vigorously because of the nature of the allegations made," Smith said outside court.

"Out of a claim of STG2.4 million, payment was only 10 per cent. That shows the other side's concern about liability and the hamstring."

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