Northern Ireland's Corry Evans apologises 'unreservedly' after wife calls referee a 'Romanian gypsy c***'

The midfielder has said the xenophobic tweet was not representative of her views and was sent 'in the heat of the moment' after Switzerland's controversial penalty

Corry Evans was judged to have handballed (PA)

Corry Evans has apologised after his wife called the referee for Northern Ireland's 1-0 defeat to Switzerland a "Romanian gypsy c***."

The game's only goal came from the penalty spot, but the spot kick was awarded in highly controversial circumstances as Evans did not appear to have handled the ball. Protests were useless, however, and Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill later described the decision as "bewildering" and even the Swiss players admitted they were "surprised."

But Lisa Evans, wife of the Blackburn midfielder, tweeted a string of xenophobic slurs.

(Twitter/@Lisa_H9 (Twitter/@Lisa_H9)

"Romanian gypsy c***!!! And to actually think Northern Ireland has probably homed one of his smelly relatives!! Ungrateful t***!! Anyway onwards and upwards."

The Manchester United academy product has since issued a statement, released via the Irish FA, that read:

"On behalf of my wife, I would like to apologise unreservedly for the content and language contained in the Tweet that she issued last night.

Xherdan Shaqiri's shot hits Corry Evans and leads to a penalty for Switzerland against Northern Ireland (Getty)

"The comments were published in the heat of the moment and are not representative of her views."

Evans was also yellow carded for the 'handball', resulting in him being suspended for the crunch second leg in Basel on Sunday night. His older brother Jonny, who plays for West Bromwich Albion and Northern Ireland, likened the injustice to Thierry Henry's infamous handball against the Republic of Ireland.

"It was actually a worse decision because the ref has made a call that was not there," Evans said.

"It's different if he didn't see it. He's claimed he saw something that didn't happen which is the hardest part to take about it.

"It's really, really difficult to take. In all of my career, this is a decision which has really, really hurt because in a game of such magnitude for a referee to guess...

"You can't really be 100 per cent sure if something has happened and I said that to him straight away. I said to him, 'Ref, you have to be 100 per cent here'. But it was too late, he had already given the decision and it's difficult to take."