Darren Bent has claimed his mother was racially abused by a Sunderland fan during his side's 1-0 defeat at Wigan.

The striker, who has scored nine goals this season to earn an England recall, posted the claim on his Twitter feed shortly after the match which was settled by Hugo Rodallega's 76th-minute goal.

Bent's original post read: "So we get beaten by Wigan and to make matters worse my mum gets racially abused by a Sunderland fan. I won't stand for that."

In later posts replying to other users of the site, Bent labelled the abuse "an absolute disgrace" and warned: "The offender needs to hope I don't find out his name or who he is".

The matter has been reported to the police, with a club spokeswoman confirming to BBC Sport: "Sunderland are liaising with Northumbria Police to fully investigate this matter.

"Behaviour of this kind is totally unacceptable to our football club."

Bent is no stranger to social networking site Twitter - having infamously posted a criticism of Spurs chairman Daniel Levy over his prtracted move to Sunderland in the summer.