Stoke defender Robert Huth has been charged with misconduct by the Football Association over comments he posted on social media.

The 30-year-old has fallen foul of FA rules relating to use of social media by players after he participated with a Twitter account which invited users of the site to guess people’s gender after seeing cropped photographs of them.

Huth subsequently deleted the tweets and posted a message saying: "Clearly no offence was meant or directed to anyone, but apologies if I've offended anyone” but the FA has decided to take the matter further.

“It is alleged the comments were indecent and/or improper and/or brought the game into disrepute, contrary to FA Rule E3(1),” read a statement on the governing body's official wesbite.

“It is further alleged that this breach of Rule E3(1) is an “Aggravated Breach” as defined in Rule E3(2), as it included a reference to gender and/or gender reassignment.

“Huth has until 6pm on January 21 2015 to respond to the charge.”

The former Chelsea and Middlesbrough centre-back has played almost 200 times for the Potters since joining the club in August 2009 but has made only four appearances for Mark Hughes’ side this season.