The Football Association has charged Burnley's Andre Gray with misconduct for homophobic tweets the striker posted four years ago.
Gray's tweets were shared across social media last weekend as he scored his first Premier League goal.
On Saturday night, Gray apologised for the tweets, which he sent in January 2012 when he was still a non-league player with the now-defunct Hinckley United.
He stressed in a statement that he was a changed man from the one who posted such thoughts as: "Is it me or are there gays everywhere? #Burn #Die #Makesmesick"
An FA statement read: "Burnley's Andre Gray has been charged with misconduct in respect of social media comments made between 9 January 2012 and 11 March 2012.
"It is alleged the comments were abusive and/or insulting and/or improper and/or brought the game into disrepute contrary to FA Rule E3(1).
"It is further alleged that these breaches include reference to an "aggravating factor", namely, sexual orientation and/or gender and/or colour and/or race contrary to FA Rule E3(2).
"The player has until 6pm on Wednesday 31 August 2016 to respond to the charge."
Gray's current manager Sean Dyche said he has spoken with his player about the tweets and believes his apology is genuine.
The Wolverhampton-born striker was involved in gang trouble in the midlands growing up and has a scar on his cheek from the time he was slashed with a knife.
"We spoke on Saturday evening and he made it clear to me what he wanted to do and how he wanted to conduct his statement; it was authentic to him and very clear," Dyche said at his news conference.
"He has moved on a long way in his life. This was a reminder, four years ago, he's a different person now. A lot has gone on his life to get to where he's got to and I think he made that clear.
"I think, I hope, people will realise it was authentic, because it was."
Former England duo Ashley Cole and Rio Ferdinand are among those to have landed in hot water for Twitter posts.
In 2015, Robert Huth, then on Stoke's books, was suspended for two games having been found to have been in breach of rules relating to comments which are indecent, improper, or bring the game into disrepute.
And in June of this year, the FA gave Coventry's Chris Stokes a one-match ban for homophobic remarks he posted on Twitter one month earlier.
In the same month that Gray's tweet was posted in 2012, then-Leicester defender Michael Ball was fined £6,000 by the FA for homophobic comments posted on Twitter, while Federico Macheda was fined £15,000 for writing something similar later that year.