Joey Barton insists he will return to football following his 18-month ban, sticking a grand on it at odds of 5/2.

The Burnley midfielder was landed with the suspension after admitting he’d been led into temptation by the giant floating head of Ray Winstone and done a ton of gambling.

Speculation has since mounted that Barton’s ban marks the end of his playing days, but this morning he hit back at his critics by tweeting details of an 8.7km run he took to his local bookies.

He told Football Burp: “It’s not my fault, lad, it’s that massive Ray Winstone head in the sky going ‘gamble!’ all the time.

“I’ll be back, lad, I’m tellin’ yer. Because as Morrissey said – or was it Nietzsche? – ‘hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ’.

“You can figure out the relevance of that y’selves, la.”