Former Wigan striker Marlon King has been caught with cocaine in his prison cell, where he is serving an 18-month sentence.

During a cell search by staff on Friday, a wrap of the Class A drug was found in his bedside cabinet apart from a banned mobile phone charger, The Sun reports.

He was convicted of molesting 20-year-old Emily Carr at London's Soho Revue Bar and breaking her nose when she tried to resist his advances.

Prison chiefs are now investigating how King was able to obtain cocaine and the phone charger.

Married father-of-three King, 29, was last night being held in solitary confinement at Wayland Prison, near Thetford, Norfolk, as punishment.

His cocaine bust will end any last hope the former Premier League player had of resuming his career once he'd finished his 18-month sentence.

"Clubs won't touch him with a bargepole once they know he's been found with drugs," a source said.

King was fired from his 35,000-pounds-a-week contract in October.

Two weeks ago, he was battered with a plate and left with a black eye during a jail dinner-queue row.

The Prison Service said: "We don't comment on individual prisoners." (ANI)