St Mirren footballer Shaun Rooney has been charged with assaulting a woman in a Glasgow takeaway.
The defender is also charged with breach of the peace involving an 18-year-old male outside the Blue Lagoon chip shop, during the alleged incident on September 19. Police Scotland confirmed the latter charge is being treated as a hate crime.
The Scottish Premiership side announced on Thursday the 28-year-old had been suspended on a “precautionary basis” after he reported the alleged incident to his bosses.
In a statement, the Paisley club vowed to “undertake a full investigation” and said it would be making “no further comment during this process”.
Buddies manager Stephen Robinson said any decision on Rooney was “board level” and that he was concentrating on the football side of things ahead of a game against Motherwell today.
Police Scotland confirmed Rooney had been arrested and charged and is due to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court at a later date.
A police spokesperson said: “A 28-year-old man was arrested and charged in connection with an assault on an 18-year-old woman and a breach of the peace against an 18-year-old man in takeaway premises on Queen Street, Glasgow, in the early hours of Thursday, September 19, 2024.
“He was released on an undertaking to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court at a later date. A report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.”
Rooney, who dates British tennis ace Heather Watson, joined St Mirren this year, after playing for several clubs in Scotland and England.
He began his career as a starlet at Dundee United and has enjoyed spells at Dunfermline Athletic, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and St Johnstone. He has made 10 appearances for the Paisley side so far this season.
Rooney was also subject to controversy last weekend following a match against Killie. Now, a new SFA panel has ruled that Rooney should have been shown a red card for lashing out at Kilmarnock’s Kyle Vassell. In a change to current protocols, controversial VAR decisions will now be reviewed by an independent panel of experts once a week.
And the first meeting of the Key Match Incident Review (KMI) Panel, which looked at 32 incidents from last weekend, found that referee Matthew MacDermid should have sent Rooney off after he twice kicked out at a grounded Vassell during the 2-2 draw in Paisley.
The error was compounded when VAR Andrew Dallas failed to call the official to the pitchside monitor.
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