Who was it? Was it real? What did it all mean? The @FootballerGay Twitter account that supposedly belonged to a homosexual Championship footballer but was deleted on Tuesday before his identity was revealed prompted a range of questions and recriminations.

Perhaps the most important one though is: what effect does the strange affair have on sport’s LGBTQ+ community? As one of a minuscule number of openly gay professional footballers globally and the only Australian male player to have ever come out, 26-year-old winger Andy Brennan is well placed to answer. His view is unequivocal: whether @FootballerGay was a hoax or not, we must only take the positives from it.

“I personally hope it isn’t a hoax, but even if it is I think you just focus on the positives,” he tells Telegraph Sport, two months after coming out. “The positive energy it created with all the supportive reactions from people was more important than anything negative, and that’s what you have to focus on – otherwise you let the negativity win.”

@FootballerGay certainly received support on social media, with former England striker Gary Lineker among those expressing solidarity. For Brennan, the incident was reminiscent of Australian cricketer James Faulkner’s Instagram post in April about his “boyfriend”.