Portsmouth manager Avram Grant’s wife has claimed her husband only visited a “massage parlour” because he is “crazy about massages”.

Israeli Mr Grant, 54, was pictured by a Sun photographer leaving a “massage parlour” near Portsmouth’s training ground, on an industrial estate near the village of Horton Heath, where prostitutes allegedly charge £130-an-hour.

TV personality Tzofit Grant, who has been married to Avram Grant for 16 years, told the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv: “It’s nobody’s business what he does with his body. He can get a Thai massage when he wants and how he wants.”

She said he is not intending to sue the Sun newspaper which took the pictures.

She said: “'Avram is a private man and can do whatever he wants.

“I don’t understand what the noise is about… Avraham is crazy about massages. He also likes Australian massages and Japanese massages, and he also likes Thai women to give him a massage.

“When he doesn’t get a massage I get angry at him. I swear, on my children’s lives, that is the truth and the whole truth”

Mr Grant is said to have admitted to the Sun reporter that he knew the place was a massage parlour, but the paper has been unable to print his identity due to privacy laws.

Today, however, the Daily Telegraph revealed his identity in the wake of the landmark ruling by Mr Justice Tugendhat last week.

It removed an injunction on newspapers over the affair of Chelsea and England captain John Terry with the ex-girlfriend of fellow England star Wayne Bridge.

Mr Grant’s name had been widely circulated on the internet in connection with the allegations before his name was revealed.