Game looks Toney deaf to issues

Ivan's back but football is riddled with hypocrisy

- RYAN TAYLOR

BRENTFORD 3 Toney 19, Mee 58, Maupay 68

NOTT'M FOREST 2 Danilo 3, Wood 65

IVAN TONEY has spent the past eight months plastering his body in reflective tattoos to help forget his gambling ban hell.

Yet here on his long-awaited return to action at Brentford, the more significant words were not written in ink. They were emblazoned across his chest.

Welcome to English football's bizarre double standards.

A broken system that is happy to endorse gambling and claim its cash - but fall into trouble and you will be hung out to dry.

"I feel like a free man, declared a stone-faced Toney in midweek.

He has not been held captive, nor been imprisoned, but the heartfelt statement was a damning reflection of the crippling mental struggles he has endured on his long road to liberation.

Thankfully, there was a priceless, early and deserving moment of redemption via a smartly-crafted 19th-minute free-kick.

Toney's goalscoring powers have evidently not waned during his time away from the game.