'Highly paid footballer' - Chelsea hat-trick hero Noni Madueke slammed for Wolverhampton comments by council leader

The 22-year-old posted in an Instagram story "Everything about this place is s**t", while showing he was in Wolverhampton. The winger - who quickly deleted the post - then scored a hat-trick as his Chelsea side thumped Wolves 6-2 at the weekend. Despite apologising for his remarks, council leader Stephen Simkins hit back at the "highly paid footballer", suggesting he has not seen enough of the city.

Simkins told BBC News: "I would suggest that this footballer, this highly paid footballer, has not really seen Wolverhampton. He could only have been here 48 hours or so and that would have been at a hotel or a training ground, so what he's seen was probably through a coach window too. You can't make snap judgements like that about a place - it's a great city."

After the match, Madueke admitted he regretted his actions. “I just want to apologise to everyone that I might have offended. It is just a human mistake, an accident. It wasn’t meant to be out on my socials like that. I’m sure Wolverhampton is a nice town and I’m sorry," he said.

Aside from his faux pas, Chelsea will hope Madueke can keep up his scoring feats for the rest of the season.

Madueke is likely to next be in action for Chelsea against Servette in the second leg of their Europa Conference League play-off tie on Thursday night. The Blues won the first leg 2-0 at Stamford Bridge last week.