HULL CITY’S JAKE Livermore has reportedly escaped a suspension, following his positive test for cocaine in April.
Livermore was briefly the club’s record signing in 2014 after joining from Tottenham Hotspur for €11m, and failed the test after Hull’s win against Crystal Palace on April 25.
The player admitted taking the substance, before it later emerged that he had turned to the drug in a depressed state, relating to the tragic death of his newborn baby.
He was immediately suspended by his club and the FA following the test, with Hull boss Steve Bruce reacting especially angrily to one of his key players taking cocaine.
“He’s let himself down. Being tarnished with that is awful and he’ll have to live with the consequences of that.
“As a reaction I’m shocked, saddened, disappointed, angry. Why wouldn’t I be?”
However upon learning that the player took the substance shortly after attending the inquest to his young baby’s death, Bruce’s attitude to the 25-year-old became more sympathetic.
“Unfortunately he lost his baby just after the FA Cup final last year.
“Jake has kept all of the problems that he had to himself. All footballers think they are macho-men but they have problems like everybody else,” Bruce said last month.
The maximum punishment for testing positive for a Class-A drug is a two year ban, but after a hearing last week, the BBC say the FA have decided not to suspend the player, given his personal circumstances.
Both the FA and Hull City have yet to make official statements about the player’s hearing.
Originally published at 4.47pm
