MY HEART sank when I saw that Ched Evans will train at Sheffield United at the request of the footballers’ trade union. Do the club and the Professional Footballers Association not understand the implications of his continued pleas of innocence?

Evans is a rapist who has been told by appeal court judges that his conviction is sound. He doesn’t have an appeal pending, he is hoping that the Criminal Cases Review Commission will find a loophole through which he can start a second appeal.

A probation officer or a forensic psychiatrist would say that he is “in denial”. This is common among sex offenders and means that they refuse to accept that they have done anything wrong. If they are paedophiles or child abusers, it is the child’s fault. If they are rapists, like Evans, it’s the woman’s fault; she wanted sex.

The woman Evans raped was so drunk she was incapable of saying yes and he must have known that before he had sex with her. That isn’t my opinion; it’s the opinion of the judge that sentenced him.

She had no idea what she was doing, where she was or who she was with. Yet, when she was in that condition, Evans decided to have sex with her, gambling that she wouldn’t remember what had happened or that no one would believe her, or simply not caring.

As long as he continues to believe that he did nothing wrong, he won’t change his behaviour.

I once covered the case of a paedophile who refused to accept that he had done anything wrong, even after he had served a 10-year sentence for child rape and child abduction. He is now serving life having been convicted of rape and other offences after his ten-year sentence against two more children after his sentence.

The Professional Footballers Association, and others, believe that once a footballer has served his time behind bars he should be allowed to resume his life as before and that playing football will be good rehabilitation for him.

Wait a minute. The first step in any rehabilitation has to be for the offender to admit they need rehabilitation, that they have done something wrong. Without that, there cannot be rehabilitation. Evans has yet to take that first step and on current evidence may never do so.

Now consider the lifestyle of the professional footballer. They are healthy young men with a young man’s appetites and a glamour that attracts women, particularly in night clubs and pubs. Mix alcohol and virtual strangers of different sexes and sexual misunderstandings will happen.

It is therefore not surprising that allegations of rape or sexual misconduct by professional footballers happen from time to time. though very few allegations make it to court. This is a lifestyle from which Evans should be barred.

What will happen after training? Will Evans get on the bus and go home when the rest of the squad go for an after-training drink? Will he turn down invitations to have a night out on the town? He is a young man who, like most young men, likes a drink.

I’m all in favour of Evans getting a job – but not as a footballer.

Until he accepts his conviction, it should be a job that keeps him occupied at night and a long way from anywhere to do with alcohol. It could even be in football.