Middlesbrough and former Leeds United striker Noel Whelan lost his driving licence today after police had clocked his blue Porsche travelling at 100mph on a motorway in North Yorkshire.

Whelan, 27, who left his native Leeds for a spell with Coventry City before signing for the Teesside club, was still living in the Midlands and heading home on Sunday morning August 25 when his speed was checked on the A1(M) at Boroughbridge.

The £18,000 a week former England Under 21 international, now living with his wife Sasha and three children in Walton Avenue, Harrogate, admitted speeding and was banned from driving for 28 days, fined £750 and ordered to pay £50 costs by Harrogate magistrates.

Whelan, who had previous convictions for speeding in 1999 and 2000 told the court he had spent over two years travelling up and down the A1 after leaving Coventry and said of his latest indiscretion: ''I hold my hands up, it was wrong.''

He said he had been ''pushed'' by someone driving fast close behind him and had been unable to move from the outside to centre lane to get out of the way because of the weight of traffic.

But court chairman John Metcalfe told him: ''I don't buy that, you can always slow down.''