Football has 'responsibility' to educate on gambling - O'Neil

Newcastle's next opponents are Wolves, whose manager Gary O'Neil believes football has a "responsibility" to ensure younger players are educated about the dangers of problem gambling.

Speaking before Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali's 10-month suspension was confirmed, O'Neil said: "It's something young players need support with, that support wasn’t there when I was playing.

"There's a responsibility from the game to ensure there's a good education for the players because it can seem fun and nothing but all of a sudden you're missing football for eight months and missing loads of money.

"It's important we understand what it can do. If I go back to when I was playing it was everywhere. It was part of the culture, it was on the team bus, people checking scores at half-time.

"The hard thing is it's not as obvious as other addictions. You can't see it. So it can be a tricky one. I'm not an expert on it but it's something the lads need support with, they need to understand the consequences it can have on life, finances, breaking rules.

"What would have helped me, not that I had an issue, but if someone had said to me 'just so you know, you're going to play football for 15 years - if you get carried away gambling you're going to lose half your money', that would have helped me."