Gary Lineker and son George
The former footballer has accepted the apology of a Twitter user who taunted his son over his childhood leukaemia. Goffphotos

BBC Olympics presenter Gary Lineker has accepted the apology of a Twitter troll who joked about his son's childhood battle with cancer.

The 51-year-old former footballer revealed that he had felt "physically sick" after Mark Sinnott taunted his son George on Twitter.

Sinnott, going by the tag @MrMarkDRUMS711, sent the 20-year-old student a series of abusive tweets about his leukaemia.

In one tweet he wrote: "@georgelineker heard ya Leukaemia , pity ya didn't die . XD"

He later referred to George as "leukaemia boy" in another post.

George, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in 1992, retweeted the comments to his 30,000 followers.

Speaking to the Mirror, Sinnott, who has closed his account, said he regretted sending the comments and apologised to the Linekers.

He told the paper: "I'm sorry if I brought up memories of how he nearly died.

"It was a stupid decision. I don't know what came over me. It was the heat-of-the-moment thing.

"I did it when I was bored, or drunk. I hope I can resolve it by coming out and apologising.

Lineker said he hoped Sinnott would "learn from his idiocy". He said he would not be taking further action:

The Match of the Day host tweeted: "Hear the twitter troll has said sorry. We accept that apology. I'm sure he will learn from his idiocy. No need for this to go further IMO."

Twitter Cancer