Blues star Carlos Edwards today pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified during a court appearance which came less than 48 hours after his wife gave birth prematurely to twins.
The 32-year-old will be sentenced on Thursday following the completion of a pre-sentence report.
He also admitted driving without insurance during a short hearing at South East Suffolk Magistrates’ Court today.
On Saturday, Edwards’s wife gave birth to twins, weighing just 2lb each, at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridgeshire following complications during the pregnancy.
The tots are in an incubator and are being cared for by specialists at the hospital.
Magistrates were told Edwards, of Century Drive, Kesgrave, had endured a stressful time recently with his wife admitted to hospital several days prior to the twins’ birth.
The former Sunderland, Luton and Wrexham player has been commuting to and from Addenbrooke’s by train after his arrest on September 26.
It is understood his wife was initially moved to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital before being transferred to Chelsea and then on to Addenbrooke’s.
The Ipswich Town midfielder’s arrest and subsequent charge for driving while disqualified and without insurance came less than three months after he admitted a host of driving offences which earned him 22 points on his licence.
He was given an automatic year-long ban from the roads and £7,000 in fines.
After his arrest, a spokesman for Ipswich Town said the club understood there were “significant mitigating circumstances” surrounding the incident.
The Star understands Edwards rushed to be by his wife’s side in hospital in Chelsea immediately after Ipswich’s 1-0 win at West Ham last month.
The Trinidadian footballer, formerly of Coprolite Street, appeared before magistrates in June this year to admit two counts each of driving without a valid licence, with no insurance and without having an up-to-date MOT, and one count of failing to give information about the identity of a driver.
He had been caught driving a Mercedes M L320 CDI on the A14 near Bury St Edmunds on January 22, and was then spotted by police just six days later committing the same offences while driving a grey Range Rover along Duke Street on January 28.