Wigan Athletic midfielder Lee Cattermole feels he was made a scapegoat last week after being arrested at a nightclub.

"Maybe the copper got a buzz out of arresting me," he told the Guardian. "Who knows? But the way I see it is that I did nothing to warrant being taken to the police station. It was something out of nothing and, sorry, but would I have been arrested if I wasn't a footballer?

"If you looked at my local paper back home, the [Middlesbrough] Evening Gazette, you'd think I'd murdered someone. My family have to pick that up and it's hard for them reading that I'm supposed to have been barred from the pubs in Yarm when I've never been barred from a pub in my life. The truth is there was nothing malicious. There was no fighting. It was a nothing incident and if I had a different job nobody would have batted an eyelid."

Cattermole continued: "Maybe I've got to be careful about putting myself in that position. I certainly won't be going to the same place for another night out. But you learn through experience.

"I'm just a young lad who loves playing football and enjoys a crack with his mates. People will look at me being arrested and automatically think: 'He must be a bad lad.' And maybe it doesn't help me that I play in an aggressive way. I know I could get a reputation. But I also know I'm not a bad person and the people who know me know that too."