Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has pleaded with the Football Association not to ‘throw the book’ at Sandro Tonali by reminding them he is battling a gambling ‘illness’ – and says he will be ‘hugely disappointed’ if his ban is extended.

The Italy midfielder is currently serving a 10-month ban following an investigation into illegal betting in his home country, and that expires on August 27.

But Tonali now faces the prospect of an additional suspension after the FA hit him with 50 fresh charges of gambling on matches AFTER his £52million move to Newcastle from AC Milan in the summer.

Mail Sport reported on Thursday that the club expect any punishment to be served concurrently with the worldwide ban imposed by Italian authorities in October, but that will be at the discretion of an independent FA regulatory commission.

Howe, though, believes Tonali has ‘suffered’ enough, and says that any further sanction that keeps him out beyond August is unfair.

‘We don’t know (what will happen), is the honest answer,’ said Howe. ‘But I certainly hope for Sandro that there are no further consequences.

‘He has suffered during this period. He has sought help, he’s been very honest. He has admitted he has an issue, and I think the best thing for Sandro would be to resume his career having taken his punishment and having learned a lot of lessons from this.

‘That illness was there and people should look at it that way and not, “Let’s throw the book at him and let’s punish him even further”, because I don’t think that gets to the root of the problem. We need to protect all our players because this is something that’s open to everybody and becoming a bigger problem in society, so this isn’t just a problem for Sandro.

‘If that ban was extended, we’d still be feeling that pain and so would Sandro, because he wants to play football and he is in a good place, doing well off the pitch. I think he should be allowed the chance to move forward with his career. I will be hugely disappointed if that ban was extended.’

Tonali continued to gamble on football as a Newcastle player, including on the opening day of the season when he scored in a 5-1 win over Aston Villa. Does Howe feel let down by that?

‘I don’t feel let down,’ he said. ‘Sandro has an illness. If this was associated with another form of illness, I think there would be a lot more sympathy and understanding. That illness did not stop the minute he moved to England. That illness was still there.

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