James McClean has been fined two weeks’ wages by Stoke City and agreed to delete his Instagram account after posting an offensive picture of himself home schooling his children in a balaclava.
The image, which was accompanied by a caption that read ‘today’s school lesson – history’ and laughing emojis, was interpreted as a reference to the IRA.
McClean has caused controversy before over his stance on the Northern Ireland issue and refusal to wear a remembrance poppy.
The 30-year-old Republic of Ireland winger was born in Derry and raised on the Creggan estate where six of the people killed on Bloody Sunday in 1972 came from.