Manchester United stars Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard have offered their support to young Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham after he was subjected to racist abuse following the UEFA Super Cup.
The Blues suffered defeat to Liverpool in Istanbul in a penalty shoot-out, with Abraham seeing his final kick saved by Reds goalkeeper Adrian to give the Champions League winners victory.
The 21-year-old was subsequently targeted with racist abuse on social media, with Chelsea saying they were ‘disgusted with the abhorrent posts’ aimed at the young striker.
The club’s reaction came after Kick It Out issued a statement condemning the treatment of Abraham and called for Twitter to do more to battle trolls online.
“Such abuse is now increasingly predictable, but no less disgusting,” said the anti-racism charity.
“We send our support to Tammy and reiterate our call for Twitter and other social companies to clamp down on this level of abuse.
“This is a call to action – we want to know what they are going to do to tackle this insidious problem.”
And England colleagues Rashford and Lingard have also backed Abraham with a series of messages to the Chelsea man.
Twitter have since responded to Kick It Out’s statement and the abuse of Abraham, insisting they are ‘deeply committed to improving the health of the conversation’ on the social media platform.
In a statement issued to the Press Association, a Twitter spokesperson said: “We continue to take action on any account that violates the Twitter Rules,” a Twitter spokesperson told PA.
“We welcome people to freely express themselves on our service, however, as outlined in our Hateful Conduct Policy, users cannot promote violence against, threaten or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity or other protected groups.
“We remain deeply committed to improving the health of the conversation on the service and in that respect we continue to prioritise the safety of our users.”
Meanwhile, Abraham’s Chelsea team-mate Christian Pulisic also backed the striker to bounce back, saying following Wednesday’s defeat to Liverpool: “We said to him, ‘It’s penalties, man – somebody has to miss’.
“He’s going to get his head up. Obviously it’s tough but penalties are like that.
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“He can deal with it and he’ll be fine. He’ll move on, he’ll score a goal in the next game and everything will be forgotten. We’re there for him.”