Hampshire Police confirmed the arrest in a statement.
"Just before 9am on Thursday, we received reports that a Lamborghini was in collision with barriers on the M3 southbound, close to the Minley Interchange. No other vehicles were involved and no injuries were reported. The driver, a 31-year-old man from Berkshire, has been arrested on suspicion of driving a vehicle whilst unfit through drugs, driving dangerously, possession of a Class C drug and failing to provide a specimen. He has been bailed while our enquiries continue."
Sterling's representatives declined to comment. A source close to the player told the Daily Mail that the personal strain he has been under in recent years has been severe.
"The psychological strain that has been put on him is immeasurable. Isolated. The second he touches a ball, being told he's a flop and he's finished. Mocked. Heckled. He moved to the Netherlands to escape and rediscover his love for the game but the negativity followed. It's been an extremely tough couple of years for him and this incident encompasses that."
Sterling's football career has contracted sharply since his £50 million move from Manchester City to Chelsea in the summer of 2022. His time at Stamford Bridge became defined by exile — he spent over six months training away from the first team under Enzo Maresca's management — before a loan spell at Arsenal in 2024-25 failed to revive his form. Chelsea subsequently terminated his contract earlier this year.
He signed for Feyenoord in February and made eight appearances without scoring before the season ended. His contract with the Dutch club has now expired, leaving him without a club.
At the peak of his career, Sterling was one of the most decorated players in England. He won four Premier League titles, five League Cups and the FA Cup at City, and earned 82 caps for England — his last coming in the quarter-final defeat against France at the 2022 World Cup.
He left QPR for Liverpool as a teenager before joining City from Anfield in 2015. The arrest on Thursday morning brings an entirely different kind of attention to a story that, for now, has no football chapter to write.