Leeds United boss Neil Warnock says Robbie Rogers would've received the club's total support if he'd come out while still on the books.

Warnock insisted his sexuality would have been accepted within the squad.

"We are in uncharted territory but I hope, and believe, if he had come out while at Leeds he would not have found it as difficult as he feared," wrote Warnock in his column for the Independent.

"If he had come to me and said he wanted to go public I would probably have suggested we get all the lads together and tell them as a group.

"Robbie is a nice lad, but he had injury problems when with us and a spell on loan to Stevenage, so in many respects he was a fringe member of the squad.

"That was why we agreed to let him go, to give him a chance to get fixed up elsewhere. So it might have been easier for him if I'd told everyone.

"I think the lads would then have just got on with it. There would have been a bit of banter - you'd expect that in a dressing room - but I don't think it would have been malicious. We're past that now. As for team selection, any manager worth his salt picks entirely on merit - they'd be daft not to."

Warnock did concede, however, that Rogers might not have had such an easy ride from those in the stands.

He added: "To judge from the vitriol you hear these days directed at players and managers, I think Robbie would have had to put up with quite a lot of abuse at some grounds."