Nathan Dyer, the Southampton midfield player, was sentenced to 60 hours of community service after pleading guilty to non-dwelling burglary of a nightclub staff room during which cash and mobile phones were stolen.

The 20-year-old said that he was ashamed after he admitted to rummaging through bags belonging to staff at the Bar Bluu club in Southsea, Hampshire on February 28. He said that he did not steal any of the items during the incident.

Dyer was also ordered to pay a total of £392.50 compensation to the four victims as well as £65 costs and was warned that if he did not complete the 60 hours of unpaid work satisfactorily within a 12-month period he could face imprisonment.

The court was shown CCTV footage that captured Dyer and four others rummaging through the bags as they left through a back exit from the club. Four members of staff reported having a total of £145 in cash, two mobile phones, a driving licence and bank cards stolen, the court heard.

“Nathan Dyer accepts that he did look through the bags, although he did not enter the room intending to do so and he did not take any property from these bags,” Mark Haslam, Dyer’s solicitor, said. “While he has a successful career as a professional footballer, he is young and naive and on the evening in question he had been drinking.

“Understandably his judgment was affected by having taken alcohol. He can’t explain what he did, he simply didn’t think straight. He was being encouraged by others, he was led astray. Nathan Dyer offers his humble and profuse apologies to all those who have been distressed by this sorry enterprise.

“He has suffered public humiliation. It’s a millstone that will hang around his neck for some time to come. He has damaged his career prospects by placing himself in this position for those minutes of madness which have changed his life.”