A married Premier League footballer has been arrested on suspicion of child sex offences, reports the Daily Mail.
Soon after the article was published on Monday night, Everton released a statement confirming that a First-Team player has been suspended with a police investigation ongoing.
“Everton can confirm it has suspended a First-Team player pending a police investigation. The Club will continue to support the authorities with their inquiries and will not be making any further statement at this time.”
MORE: Everton confirm a first-team player has been suspended amid a police investigation
Football fans are used to seeing Premier League players in Mercurials, not handcuffs, so every time a story of this nature breaks in the media, it’s big news, if hugely concerning.
While it’s rare for Premier League players to end up behind bars, there have been multiple instances of it in the past. Players are expected to be whiter than white, but the making of mistakes is human nature.
Here’s five players of Premier League’s past which ended up in prison…
5.) Eric Cantona
We’re kicking off our top five with a big old asterisk, with Cantona never ACTUALLY spending a night in jail.
However, it’s such a high-profile incident, with one of the greatest players ever to step foot in the Premier League, how could we possibly omit the Manchester United great?
In January of 1995, having seen red and kung-fu-kicked a Crystal Palace supporter, Cantona was sentenced to a total of 14 days in prison after submitting a guilty plea for common assault.
Cantona had committed the crime on television, so any denial would probably not have sat well with the court.
A judge later overturned the sentence and instead ordered Cantona to serve 120 hours of community service.
Having a player with Cantona’s talent picking up litter by the side of a road is enough of a punishment.
Source: Independent