Birmingham City defender Dion Sanderson has been charged with drink-driving and will appear in court next week. The club were made aware of the incident last week and decided to strip Sanderson of the captaincy for Saturday’s game against Rotherham United.

Sanderson - who was appointed Blues skipper after joining the club permanently from Wolverhampton Wanderers last year - was replaced by experienced goalkeeper John Ruddy and won't wear the armband in either of Blues' remaining two Championship games.

Sanderson kept his place in Blues’ starting line-up at Rotherham and has started all six games since Gary Rowett was appointed interim manager.

In a statement released to BirminghamLive,West Midlands Police said: “Dion Sanderson, 24, has been charged with drink driving and will appear before magistrates in Birmingham on 30 April. He has been bailed until that date.”

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Sanderson enjoyed two loan spells at Blues before becoming a permanent signing last summer. The central defender has started 35 league games this term and has made 88 Blues appearances in total.

A club statement said: "The club was informed by West Midlands Police early last week that Dion Sanderson had been charged in relation to a drink-driving offence. Sanderson reported the incident to club officials on the same day.

"As a result, disciplinary action was taken by the club and the decision was made to remove the Men’s First Team captaincy from the Blues defender for the remainder of the season.

"Sanderson has apologised to his teammates for his gross error in judgement and accepts full responsibility for his actions. The matter has been dealt with internally and no further comment will be made at this time."

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