Silence for a 'dead' footballer

A football club is under investigation after holding a minute's silence before a cup match for a player who hadn't died.

The rival team expressed outrage at the "sick joke" by players from GSK Phoenix, who went on to win their away clash against Ifield Edwards in West Sussex 3-2.

The Ifield team accused GSK of pulling a deliberate stunt to put them off.

Jamie Mills, 28, said: "Several of our squad knew the so-called deceased player well. We came out of the dressing room completely shocked."

"We observed the minute's silence and we noticed that several of the Phoenix players didn't exactly look sombre. It wasn't until the end that we found out that he hadn't died."

Mr Mills said they were told that GSK had merely dropped the player from their first team for the first time in a number of years.