Jack Wilshere has owned up to smoking a cigarette, but insists that he is not a fully-fledged smoker.
He has also promised that he has smoked his last, after being caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar.
Arsenal star Wilshere was captured on camera with a cigarette between his lips following Arsenal’s Champions League win over Napoli last week.
At the time he denied smoking, and said that he had just been sucking on the cigarette as a “prank.”
But nobody was fooled, least of all his unimpressed manager Arsene Wenger, who rightly admonished him.
Professional footballers are paid obscene amounts of money, and so the least they can do is keep their bodies in shape as a mark of respect to the clubs who pay them, the fans who idolise them, and themselves.
Wilshere now admits his mistake, and has promised not to smoke again.
"I made a mistake, players make mistakes, I'm not a smoker,” the England international said.
"I spoke with the boss and he asked me what happened, I explained to him, we sorted it out and he put me in the team and hopefully I repaid him.”
"No it's not,” he insisted, after being asked if his smoking is an issue.
“I'm not a smoker so I think that will be my last one."
Wenger meanwhile, was impressed with the way Wilshere answered his critics in the best way possible, by scoring an all-important goal for the Gunners at the weekend.
"He is an honest guy and when he is wrong he knows it," Wenger said of Wilshere.
"I think today the players don't get away with anything. We got away with it a bit more but they know that's the rules of the modern game.
"They have to deal with it and I think he learns very quickly. What is more interesting for him and for Arsenal is that he shows the right response on the pitch."
