Steve Bruce reveals the tragic reason behind Jake Livermore’s positive drug test

Tragic.

Jake Livermore faces an anxious wait to find out his fate from the Football Association after a routine drug test came back positive for cocaine at the end of last season. The midfielder missed the end of the campaign relegated Hull after being found with the drug in his system after the test in May. He is due to face a hearing later this month to find out his long-term fate, but there is an expectation that the FA may go easy on him after the circumstances surrounding the player were revealed by his manager. Steve Bruce has told a local radio station in England that the former Tottenham played struggled to cope with the loss of a child in May of of 2014.

"Unfortunately he lost his baby just after the FA Cup final last year. "Jake has kept all of the problems that he had to himself. All footballers think they are macho-men but they have problems like everybody else. "He has got to serve his punishment because he has done wrong and there is no disputing that, but there are obviously some circumstances that make you see he has been in a dark place for a long, long time. There's no question it was a mitigating factor. "He has been seeking help and been seeing some good people so we hope there will be a positive outcome at the end of the month."

Bruce is hopeful that the FA will not go too hard on the player and that the mitigating circumstances will help in his case.

"I think he expects to be punished and that's only too right, but then we have to look at the bigger picture and try and help the lad if we possibly can. "People think because they are professional footballers they've got the world; they have problems just like everybody else does. Unfortunately with Jake he's had problems and possibly didn't seek the help that he needed at the time."

H/ T BBC