Corry Evans releases statement after wife’s racist twitter rant at referee

Corry Evans has apologised after his wife's Twitter outburst at the referee who took charge of Northern Ireland's defeat to Switzerland on Thursday night.

The only goal of the World Cup qualifier first leg came from a controversially-awarded penalty, with Ovidiu Hategan ruling that Evans had handled the ball as he blocked a shot from Xherdan Shaqiri. Replays showed that the ball had clearly struck him on the back and not on his arm. The decision prompted tweets from Evans' wife, Lisa, in which she described Hategan as a 'Romanian gypsy c***'. The Mirror took screenshots of the tweets she sent before her account disappeared. '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,' a statement issued by Evans through the IFA said. 'The comments were published in the heat of the moment and are not representative of her views,' he added. As well as conceding the penalty, Evans - brother of West Bromwich Albion's former Manchester United defender, Jonny - was also booked by the referee for the incident, ruling him out of the second leg which takes place in Basel on Sunday.