England manager Roy Hodgson has leaped to the defence of Jack Wilshere after the Arsenal star was criticised for smoking a shisha pipe.

The midfielder became embroiled in controversy when a photograph of him in a nightclub holding a hookah emerged, but the national team coach does not believe that he has done anything wrong.

Hodgson even admitted to smoking shisha himself, confessing that he did not care for it.

"As an ex-cigar smoker when I tried [shisha] I thought it was a complete nonsense, I couldn't understand who would do it," The Mirror quotes the England boss as saying.

"Apart from a faint fruity taste in your mouth that was about the end of it. As far as I am concerned that is a club matter and Arsene Wenger dealt with it very, very well.

"If you are asking me, in an ideal world is that an ideal thing to happen? Of course it isn't, but we don't live in an ideal world."

Gunners boss Wenger also defended Wilshere over the incident after the midfielder issued an apology.