Don't hammer Sterling over mistake

"We ask an awful lot of young players growing up in the public eye. Many of us look back at things we have done in our teens and early 20s and wish we hadn’t done them."

Raheem Sterling “made a mistake” in apparently being filmed inhaling the legal high nitrous oxide but the 20-year-old Liverpool star should be treated with understanding, according to players’ union chief Bobby Barnes.

Footage has emerged of Sterling appearing to take ’laughing gas’ and then passing out, and Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers said he will be speaking to his player about his lifestyle.