Defender Ryan Andrews has been charged with a breach of an FA rule in relation to his behaviour at Sunderland last Wednesday night.

Andrews was sent off in the closing stages of the 2-0 defeat at Sunderland after being shown a straight red card by referee Andy Davies for a lunge on the home side’s Jack Clarke.

The rule he is alleged to have breached, Rule E3.1, which states:

‘A Participant shall at all times act in the best interests of the game and shall not act in any manner which is improper or brings the game into disrepute or use any one, or a combination of, violent conduct, serious foul play, threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting words or behaviour.’

This suggests Andrews may have acted violently or made a comment/comments after being sent off which the referee has included in his report.

The press box is way up at the back of the stand at the Stadium of Light so it was impossible to know what he said or to who, but there was nothing in his body language that looked violent – he appeared shocked and surprised.

However, Rule E3.1 also covers cases involving media comments or comments made on social networking sites.

In its rules, the FA says that the sort of comments would lead to an infringement of their rules include:

- Comments which are improper, which bring the game into disrepute, which are threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting.

- Comments about match officials which imply bias, attack the officials’ integrity or which are personally offensive in nature.

Andrews did not give any media interviews after the game, and was not quoted on any of the club’s official channels.

A look at the player’s social media channels does not appear to show anything untoward, although with many platforms offering the ability to post things which then later disappear, it could be that anything he said has already gone.

In their guidance notes for Rule E3.1, the FA say:

'Participants are deemed responsible for any postings on their account. The fact that a posting may have been made by a third party will not necessarily prevent disciplinary action being taken.

'In addition, re-tweeting another person’s posting may lead to disciplinary action if the original comment was improper.

'Finally, deleting an inappropriate posting, whilst advisable, does not necessarily prevent disciplinary action being taken.'

Andrews has until this Wednesday, October 11, to provide his response. He left the country for Bucharest today as part of the England Under-20 squad that plays Romania in Bucharest on Thursday in the Euro Elite League, before facing Portugal at Stadium MK next Tuesday (October 17).

After Andrews has submitted his response, the FA can then take one of three options: charge him with a breach of the rule, issue a formal warning or take no further action.

There are no set sanctions for a breach of rule E3.1, though those found guilty previously have been fined, but in some cases bans have been extended.

Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk was sent off for a foul on Alexander Isak in the 2-1 win at Liverpool in August, and then remonstrated with referee John Brooks.

A ‘last man’ foul red card automatically incurs a one-match ban, but Van Dijk later admitted a breach of Rule E3.1 because of his behaviour during the aftermath, and saw his ban extended to two games as well as receiving a £100,000 fine.