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Benik Afobe puts on a brave face yesterday to lift the Championship trophy alongside his wife and child as he was caught up in a vicious hacking plot.

The Wolves striker, 25, was accused of asking a 16-year-old to his hotel after his social media account was hacked.

He should have been enjoying the best day of his career as Wolves triumphed following their 0-0 draw with Sheffield Wednesday at Molineux stadium, where fans set off flares yesterday.

But instead he was forced to strenuously deny sending messages to the girl.

His representative last night told how he his social media accounts had been “operating suspiciously” for several weeks.

(Image: Nathan Stirk)

He has called in the FA’s technical experts to troubleshoot the problem.

The girl and her parents were shocked when she was bombarded with messages from Afobe’s official Instagram account even after she told the sender her age two weeks ago.

In the messages she was offered a taxi to bring her to a hotel in Bolton the next day – where the sender said he would be ahead of Wolves’ 4-0 away win at the Macron Stadium last weekend.

The horrified girl told her mum and teachers, and said: “I just wanted to stop it from happening to anyone else.”

Yet Afobe had no clue the messages were being sent.

(Image: PA)

The girl, who is a social media influencer, said she first got messages from Benik’s account two weeks ago, a few days after her 16th birthday.

In messages on Instagram and Snapchat, the sender complimented a selfie taken in her bedroom and asked how old she was.

When she said she was 16 the sender sent shocked emojis and wrote back: “I don’t believe it.”

But the first Afobe knew of it was when we approached him for comment on the messages.

His representative said his accounts have now been reset, and condemned whoever had faked the messages.

The sender of the messages almost landed Afobe in hot water with the girl’s father.

Her mum, 46, said: “My husband was disgusted, he wanted to drive to Wolves and confront Benik. I said he should have got into the taxi he wanted to send for my daughter.”