Burnley midfielder Joey Barton is facing a lengthy FA ban.

The Sunday Mirror says Barton is facing a lengthy ban which could wreck his Premier League career when he appears before an FA commission early next month.

Burnley who offered the 34-year-old bad boy of football a contract until the end of the season fear that the midfielder will be frozen out of the game after admitting that he placed 1,260 football related bets between 26 March 2006 and 13 May 2016.

Barton requested a personal hearing and had managed to delay his day of reckoning, but a date has now been set for the second week in March.

It means Saturday's trip to Swansea could be his last game for the Clarets.

Burnley believe that the FA will come down hard on a player who has courted controversy throughout his career.