Sheffield United Women’s forward Sophie Jones has been charged by the FA for an “aggravated breach” of using “abusive language”.

Jones is accused of racially abusing Tottenham Ladies centre-back Renee Hector during the two sides’ FA Women’s Championship game on 6 January.

After the match, Hector took to Twitter to claim that Jones had directed repeated monkey noises at her during the match.

“Such a shame that racism seems to be rising up again in football – I received some monkey noises today from an opposition player,” Hector said.

“The only reaction was to let the football do the talking and that we did great start to the year!”.

The FA have now released a statement confirming that Jones has been charged.

“Sheffield United FC Women’s player Sophie Jones has today been charged with a breach of FA Rule E3,” a statement read.

“It is alleged that words she used during an FA Women’s Championship fixture against Tottenham Hotspur Ladies on 6 January 2019 breached Rule E3[1] as they were abusive and/or insulting.

“It is further alleged that the words constituted an ‘Aggravated Breach’, which is defined in Rule E3[2], as they included reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race.

Jones now has until 15 February to respond to the FA charge.