Sunderland: League One club say Kyle Lafferty flute tweet was ‘genuine mistake’

Sunderland have said a tweet posted about new signing Kyle Lafferty which referred to loyalist pipe bands was a “genuine mistake”.

The post, which captioned photos of the 32-year-old with the message “he’s seven foot and plays the flute”, was posted by the club on Monday.

The line references a chant which dates from Lafferty’s time with Scottish side Rangers and was swiftly deleted.

“It was a genuine mistake and was removed immediately,” the club said.

The Daily Record also reported that the club said: “It was written in all innocence by someone unaware of how it could be interpreted.”