IPSWICH Town loan star David Unsworth has been charged with drink-driving after allegedly being caught nearly three times over the legal limit.The 31-year-old defender was stopped while at the wheel of a Ford Mondeo car near his home in Whiteley, near Portsmouth, on Sunday.

By Jonathan Barnes

IPSWICH Town loan star David Unsworth has been charged with drink-driving after allegedly being caught nearly three times over the legal limit.

The 31-year-old defender was stopped while at the wheel of a Ford Mondeo car near his home in Whiteley, near Portsmouth, on Sunday.

Police said he failed a roadside breath test, which registered 98 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - nearly three times the legal limit of 35 microgrammes.

Unsworth, who is on loan from Premiership side Portsmouth, was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving and taken into custody on Sunday night before being charged in the early hours of Monday morning.

Hampshire police said the player was bailed until March 10, when he will appear at Fareham Magistrates' Court.

Unsworth played the full 90 minutes in Ipswich's 2-0 home defeat to Queen's Park Rangers the day before his arrest.

Last night, a spokesman for Ipswich Town declined to comment on Unsworth's arrest and charge, saying: “This is a personal matter for David and his lawyers to deal with.”

Unsworth is due to take his place in the Town line-up for their top-of-the-table Championship match with Wigan Athletic at the JJB Stadium on Saturday.

The player joined Ipswich at the start of last month in a deal that will keep him at Portman Road until the end of season.

He scored on his debut, a 2-0 win at Sheffield United, and has played in each of the four games since.

The star began his career at Everton, where he first played under current Town boss Joe Royle.

Unsworth, who is nicknamed Rhino, won an FA Cup winners' medal with the club in 1995, and was capped by England in a friendly against Japan a month later.

He left to join West Ham in 1997 and, after changing his mind on a £3million transfer to Aston Villa a year later without playing a game for his new club, he returned to Everton for the start of the 1998-9 season.

Unsworth moved to Portsmouth at the start of this season and scored twice in 15 games before falling out of favour after manager Harry Redknapp resigned.

The star said the opportunity to work with Royle again was the deciding factor on his temporary move to promoting-chasing Town.