Ivan Toney tried to gag The Sun on Sunday from revealing he faced a betting investigation in bid to save World Cup place

PREMIER League ace Ivan Toney tried to gag The Sun on Sunday from revealing he faced a betting investigation – in a bid to save his World Cup place.

The Brentford striker hired lawyers who threatened to injunct us over our exclusive story that he was being probed over alleged breaches of betting rules.

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And his legal team even claimed our report would hit England’s chances of winning the World Cup.

The letter was sent just a fortnight before Toney was charged with 232 breaches of FA betting rules.

They argued: “The publication of the Article will not only inevitably have an unwarranted, unfair and adverse impact upon our client’s prospects of being selected for the squad, it will also cause disruption for the England manager, the national team and The Football Association at a time when all focus should be on selection of the best squad to give the England national team the best possible opportunity of winning the World Cup.”

Toney then asked for a “written undertaking that no story of the alleged nature of the Article will be published”.

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The Sun on Sunday indicated that it was prepared to fight the injunction threat and Toney’s team backed down.

If Toney, valued at £50 million, is found guilty he faces a lengthy ban.

Leading barrister Gavin Millar KC, praised The Sun on Sunday, saying: said: “It was a very important story indeed for The Sun on Sunday to run and resist the injunction arguments.

“This was not just about Ivan Toney, it was about the England squad – the most important squad story you can get.

“That means the public interest in the story being run in a balanced way was very, very strong indeed.

“Public figures like this should not be threatening papers like The Sun on Sunday.

“It’s great to see there are still editors out there with the courage of their convictions.”

Toney was left out of England’s World Cup squad but the FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said last week they did not tell Southgate to do that.