ANDRE Gray will miss games against Watford, Arsenal, Southampton and Everton after he was handed a four-match ban following an FA hearing into abusive social media posts.

The striker admitted three charges relating to posts on his Twitter account, but denied a further three, however an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing on Thursday found Gray guilty of those charges as well.

It was alleged that the social media posts were abusive and/or insulting and/or improper and/or brought the game into disrepute contrary to Rule E3(1).

It was further alleged that these breaches of Rule E3(1) included a reference to sexual orientation and/or gender and/or colour and/or race contrary to Rule E3(2).

As well as the ban, which begins immediately, Gray was fined £25,000 plus costs, warned as to his future conduct and ordered to attend a one-to-one FA education course.

A spokesman for the Clarets said: "Burnley Football Club and Gray accept the Independent Regulatory Commission’s decision, which relate to historical posts made before Andre joined the club in August, 2015.

"Gray himself regrets the posts and has pledged, in an apology, to continue to improve, both as a person and role model to others.

"Burnley Football Club takes its responsibility in the wider community seriously, and through its charitable arm, Burnley FC in the Community, will be investing close to £2m in community work over the forthcoming season.

"We work closely with all of our players, including Andre, on a wide-ranging variety of community programmes and we undertook 300 player appearances last season, which we will be looking to increase in the coming 12 months.

"We believe this charge, regarding historical social media posts, should now also serve as a warning to all professional footballers, and participants in the wider sporting field."

The Twitter comments, which dated back to 2012 when Gray was still at Hinckley United, came to light in the hours after he had scored his first Premier League goal against Liverpool on Saturday, August 20.

That night he released a statement in which he asked for 'forgiveness' and explained that he was now a changed character.

He said: "The tweets were posted four years ago when I was a completely different person to the man I am now. I was at a very different point in my life back then - one that I've worked hard to move on from.

"Thankfully a lot has changed in my life since then. I have experienced a lot over the past four years and have had to take responsibility for a number of things in my life which has enabled me to mature and grow as a person since that time.

"I have a lot of regrets regarding a number of things I've done in the past and realise I have made some big mistakes, none more so than these tweets, but I would like to stress that I've worked incredibly hard to completely transform my life since that time.

"To clarify, I do not hold the beliefs written in those tweets whatsoever. I can assure everybody that I am absolutely not homophobic and as said previously I can only apologise and ask for forgiveness to anyone I offended.

"Thankfully I am not the guy I was back then and will continue to work hard both on and off the pitch to become a better person."