Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne has been arrested following an alleged drunken assault at a train station, British media reported yesterday.

The 46-year-old, who in March returned to Britain from the United States where he was being treated for alcoholism, was held at a police station in Hertfordshire, north of London, after the incident.

“Police were called to Stevenage rail station around 10:30pm on Thursday, July 4, following a report of a man being drunk and disorderly,” a spokesman for the British Transport Police said.

“A 46-year-old man was subsequently arrested on suspicion of common assault and being drunk and disorderly by Hertfordshire Constabulary officers,” he said.

The man was later taken into police custody and bailed to return pending police inquiries, the spokesman said.

Reports said Gascoigne was held overnight in a cell for 12 hours and bailed on Friday following the assault which involved his ex-wife and a security guard at the train station.

A spokesman from Gascoigne’s management company Game Plan Solutions declined to comment, but did not deny that the former midfielder had been arrested.

Gascoigne, for many the most naturally gifted footballer of his generation, told reporters in March that he was inspired to stay off alcohol after coming close to death while receiving treatment in the United States.