Marcus Rashford targeted by racist abuse after Europa League final defeat

Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford has revealed he was subjected to a flurry of racist abuse after his side's defeat to Villarreal in the Europa League final on Wednesday night.

United were second-best throughout in what was an objectively underwhelming game of football, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side eventually coming up short on penalties after David de Gea saw his effort turned away.

It was a disappointing evening for Rashford, who then revealed on Twitter that 'at least 70' instances of racist abuse had been directed at him online after the match.

"At least 70 racial slurs on my social accounts counted so far," Rashford wrote. "For those working to make me feel any worse than I already do, good luck trying.

"I’m more outraged that one of the abusers that left a mountain of monkey emojis in my DM is a maths teacher with an open profile. He teaches children!! And knows that he can freely racially abuse without consequence."

Rashford has regularly spoken out about the racist abuse which has been directed his way on social media, constantly calling out social media sites for not doing enough to protect users and punish those who abuse the platform.

If you were in any doubt over the scale of the problem facing society on social media, you only have to look at the replies to Rashford's latest comments, where you'll find plenty of fans defending the abusers because Rashford didn't play particularly well in a football match.

You'll find some saying he should play better if he wants to avoid racism and others suggesting he needs to develop thicker skin because of his status as a high-profile footballer. There are countless so-called supporters who don't seem to know the difference between criticism and a racial slur.

It's understood that the specific account Rashford mentioned has been removed from Twitter, but we've been here before, haven't we?

English football recently took part in a four-day social media boycott to try and urge platforms to implement better security and punishments, but such changes have not been forthcoming.

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