Stoke City pig's head incident: Jones apologises to Whelan

Stoke striker Kenwyne Jones has apologised to team-mate Glenn Whelan after smashing his car windscreen in a mistaken act of retribution.

Jones, 28, found a pig's head wrapped in his clothes at the club's training ground on Friday.

He was said to have been furious at the prank and reacted by breaking Whelan's windscreen.

However he was left to apologise after Whelan claimed he was not involved in the incident.

Stoke have launched an investigation into the incident but are yet to make a statement as to whether any player will be punished.

On his Twitter page, Jones suggested he and Whelan had now moved on from the matter, denying also that the incident was racially motivated.

"First off for all the people saying this had anything to with racism I'm not endorsing that," he said. "Secondly I've apologised to Glenn Whelan for the destruction of his property.

"For all the people that think that the pig's head wrapped in my clothes was banter, great, so is the broken window.

"As far as tension in the squad there's none - myself and Whelan had our thrash-out and he said it wasn't him so I apologised and I'm paying for it.

"As for the person who did it no one has come forward and apologised to me so I guess the joke was good then. But as I said, if you have the belly to take banter to that level be willing to accept the reaction. That's final - no more comments."

The incident came just days after retiring striker Michael Owen had his car covered in eggs and flour by team-mates.

On that occasion, Jones tweeted a picture of Owen's car to his followers with the explanation that it was a "leaving present" for the former England star but he denied that he was involved in the incident.

In a statement on Friday, Stoke said they took reports of an incident at their training ground seriously and said a full internal investigation would be carried out and those responsible for any unacceptable behaviour would be dealt with in accordance with the club's disciplinary procedures.