Ireland joined Newcastle on loan after a brief ill-fated spell at Villa |
Newcastle’s Stephen Ireland and Leon Best have apologised after being photographed at a nightclub the night before Saturday’s 4-0 defeat at Stoke.
The pair, who missed the game because of injury, were pictured lifting their shirts to show off their tattoos.
“Going to a bar was inappropriate ahead of the game. We regret doing so,” read a statement on the club website.
“With an important game the next day we should never have put ourselves or the club in that position.”
The statement continued: “We were asked to have our photograph taken and we removed our shirts as a tongue-in-cheek joke between friends, but of course the resulting coverage in the press suggests a far different night out.”
Ireland and Best stressed that they had not consumed any alcohol and were only at the bar briefly, along with reserve-team player Stephen Folan.
Midfielder Ireland has yet to play for the Magpies since
joining on loan from Aston Villa
in January, having had a knee injury when he arrived and suffered a thigh injury in training since then.
His last first-team football was
on 6 December.
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Newcastle duo sorry for night out