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Derby County have issued a lifetime ban to a fan who trolled Sheffield United striker Billy Sharp with a vile message about the death of his infant son.

Sharp's son, Luey Jacob, died just two days after being born in late October 2011 from gastroschisis, which affects around 1 in 3,000 babies in the UK.

A troll posted a repulsive message after Sharp scored the first out of two goals for United during a 3-1 victory against Derby County on Saturday.

The Twitter account, under the name of Jordan Byrne, shockingly wrote 'dead son'.

It then followed it up with 'Billy Sharp's son is dead' after being confronted by another Twitter user.

Sharp, 31, responded to his tormentor by tweeting: "Don't s*** yourself now you have made the comments".

(Image: Ross Parry/SWNS)

Derby County vowed to take swift action and officials tracked down the fan and interviewed him.

A statement from the Rams said: "Club officials today tracked down Jordan Byrne and interviewed him regarding the tweets which mocked the death of Mr Sharp’s infant son, Luey Jacob.

"Byrne admitted that he was responsible for the posts which were published after Saturday’s game at Bramall Lane.

"While he apologised for his actions, Derby County stand firm that behaviour of this nature is entirely unacceptable and requires strong action.

"Consequently, the club has imposed a lifetime ban on this individual which prevents him attending any Derby County games – home and away – with immediate effect.

"Derby County condemns all forms of abuse and will act quickly to punish anybody who is responsible for this type of grossly offensive behaviour."

After the storm over the comments, Byrne made his private and removed his profile picture, before the account was deleted completely.

However, the account later reappeared, with the offending tweets deleted, and an apology posted.

Sharp and wife Jade Sharp set up the LJS Foundation in Luey's memory, to support and fund research for gastroschisis.