South African hooker Brett Sharman apologises for offensive Mo Farah tweet

On August 11, the day Farah won his second Olympic Games gold medal, Sharman tweeted "Good luck Mohammed running for Paki ... I mean Great Britain."

Sharman apologised the next day and has since disabled his Twitter account.

Farah was born in Somalia and moved to England at age eight. After winning the 10,000m and 5,000m races in the Olympic Stadium, he became a national hero.

Sharman is qualified to play for England despite being born in South Africa, making his comments rather strange. He has previously stated a desire to represent England

Northampton was less than impressed with the tweet and subsequent negative press.

"Northampton Saints treats all such matters seriously,” the club said in a statement. “The club has a clear policy regarding social media and is following the procedures set out in that policy. Northampton Saints does not comment on individual cases."

Gloucester Tindall, whose wife Zara Phillips won a silver equestrian medl at the Games, told the Guardian that where Farah was born should not be an issue.

"It is disappointing when there are always negatives," said Tindall. "Mo Farah won gold medals for Team GB and other athletes who were not born here performed exceptionally, and you hear them being called plastic Britons because of where they are from.

"Mo has been here since he was a young boy, but we always seem to look for the bad rather than celebrate the good. I was in the stadium when Mo won the 10,000m and the crowd was behind him all the way, cheering him on through every lap. The noise during the closing stages was something else."