Ivan Toney will have seen a ban coming down the track but few things can adequately prepare a footballer for the fact that, over the next eight months, he will be unable to ply his trade. The outcome is among the worst he could have envisaged and casts a shroud of uncertainty over the prospects of a player who has blossomed into one of the country’s most accomplished centre-forwards.
When Toney, who has been suspended after admitting 232 breaches of FA betting rules between 25 February 2017 and 23 January 2021, returns to action he will face a battle to pick up where he left off. Only Erling Haaland and Harry Kane sit ahead of him in this season’s Premier League scoring charts, his 20 goals contributing heavily to a fine year for Brentford. At 27 he is approaching his peak and a lay-off until next January will eat away valuable time from a career whose star had soared.
