THE wife of ex-Southampton striker Charlie Austin has sparked a debate after praising her 16-year-old daughter for punching a bully.

Bianca Austin took to social media to say how "proud" she was that her daughter finally "punched a bully in the face" following weeks of taunts.

Bianca, 35, whose husband now plays as a striker for League Two club Swindon Town took to Twitter to praise her teenage daughter for her actions against the girl.

The mother-of-three tweeted: "After weeks of being bullied by the same girl, numerous phone calls to the school, and nothing changing, today when being called names my daughter finally punched the bully in the face. Proud mum."

Her post very quickly gained attention and has 16.8k likes and over 500 comments, with many praising her for speaking out and others expressing concern for her daughter.

One wrote: "We all have our breaking points, does she feel better now she's stood up for herself?"

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To which Bianca responded: "No, but she is hoping the girl will leave her alone now."

Another person said: "Hope your daughter is okay, good for her for standing up for herself."

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And another follower wrote: "Excellent tweet too, hate bullies with a vengeance."

But not everyone agreed, with one person suggesting that her daughter's actions could only make the problem worse.

They said: "Your daughter should not be hitting anyone, ever.

"I get that bullying is awful and harmful but when I said your daughter’s actions would make things worse, you can now see where I was going.

"Bullying someone “back” by hitting is also bullying."

Bianca replied: "I’d be interested to hear how you’d suggest a resolution to the bullying, Michelle.

"School couldn’t stop it, it was wrecking her mental health and affecting her GCSE studies, what is the right course of action here?! Also, she didn’t “bully” back.

"Bullying is repeated behaviour intended to hurt someone emotionally and physically.

"She has no intent of malice, all she wants is to be left alone to quietly enjoy school!"

Bianca, who is currently training to be a nurse, then went on to share with her 11k followers the punishment her daughter received for the incident.

She wrote: "2 days in-school exclusion for my daughter whilst the other child has gone to class because she was only verbally abusive.

"No wonder bullying is never stopped in schools."

Charlie Austin was recently in the headlines when he confronted a fan after Swindon's 2-0 loss to Doncaster.

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The striker completed a free transfer to Swindon Town in 2022 more than a decade after leaving the club.

Advice on how to deal with bullying in school can be found on the National Bullying Helpline.

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