A RISING American football star has been arrested for allegedly having sex with his 14-year-old cousin and getting her pregnant.

Sharieff Inuka Rhaheed-Muhammed, a 17-year-old gridiron linebacker from Florida, will face a charge of lewd lascivious behaviour, WPTV reports. That’s defined as “intentionally touching a person under 16 years of age in a lewd or lascivious manner”.

According to police, there is a greater than 99.99 per cent probability that Rhaheed-Muhammed fathered a child with the 14-year-old girl, who later had an abortion. The player initially refused to provide a DNA sample, but police obtained a warrant.

Authorities began investigating the case in October when the girl’s mother raised the alarm.

The woman noticed her daughter acting strangely, so she bought a pregnancy test and confronted her. Her daughter then began to cry and confessed to having sex with Rhaheed-Muhammad, WPTV reports.

According to the girl, she was 11 years old when the football player began touching her inappropriately. They had sex in June of last year, and the child was aborted in November.

The girl said Raheed-Muhammed “did not force himself on her” and “it just happened”.

Rhaheed-Muhammed signed up to play for the University of Louisville, in Kentucky, just last week. That was supposed to be a huge step in the 6-foot-3, 98kg linebacker’s young career.

The university has released an extremely brief statement, saying “coach Bobby Petrino is aware of the situation”.

Rhaheed-Muhammed was released from juvenile detention on Tuesday, a police spokeswoman said. Further details on the case are not currently available.