Saido Berahino: Stoke star’s spiked drink drugs ban is a lesson to all young football players, warns Mark Hughes

STOKE CITY boss Mark Hughes believes Saido Berahino’s spiked drink drugs ban is a lesson to all young players.

Berahino was suspended for eight weeks earlier this season after testing positive for a recreational drug in a random test.

Reuters

But this week he claimed the result was because his drink had been spiked during a visit to a nightclub.

Hughes confirmed Berahino had given him this explanation while talks took place during his £12million move from West Brom to the Potteries in January.

The Stoke boss says the player’s latest revelation was no surprise to him – even though Berahino only went public with it two months after moving to the bet365 Stadium.

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Hughes said: “I think that generally young people would understand that in this day and age, that can happen.

“You’ve got to be careful and it’s a message to everybody I suppose in those cirucmstances that there are situations where you can be compromised.”

Hughes said he knew Berahino’s side of the story from day one of his move to Stoke.

Reuters

Sparky added: “That’s what Saido was always very strong on. He has no idea what the substance was in his system and that’s his take on it.

“It’s his view that’s the only way it could have happened. He’s been very consistent about that and never wavered on it - and why would he?

“That’s always been Saido’s stance. There’s no reason to disbelieve him. In this day and age a lot of people have been victim of that.

"These things will raise their head throughout his career, but it’s something we’ve been aware of. It’s not really affected us moving forward in my view.”