Manchester City's Bernardo Silva has been charged by the FA with improper conduct for a racially insensitive tweet sent to teammate Benjamin Mendy.

The tweet - which was quickly deleted - featured a picture of Mendy as a youngster next to a black cartoon character.

Silva potentially faces a six-game ban and has until Wednesday 9 October to respond.

"Bernardo Silva has been charged with misconduct for a breach of FA Rule E3 in relation to a social media post on 22 September 2019," an FA statement read.

"It is alleged that the Manchester City player’s activity breaches FA Rule E3(1) as it was insulting and/or improper and/or brought the game into disrepute.

"It is further alleged that the activity constitutes an “Aggravated Breach”, which is defined in FA Rule E3(2), as it included reference, whether expressed or implied, to race and/or colour and/or ethnic origin."

Silva was widely condemned for his tweet, though City manager Pep Guardiola defended the Portuguese by saying it was only a "joke".

"It's a cartoon and the face is quite similar," said Guardiola. "The same happened a thousand million times with white people. It's the same. It was just a joke and that's all."

More to follow.