Watford captain Troy Deeney falls victim to alleged racial abuse on social media

The forward has disabled comments on his Instagram profile in order to curb the racial abuse he has received.

On Sunday, 7 April 2019, Watford defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers by 3-2 in the F.A. Cup semi final after extra time, clawing back from a two goal deficit. The captain of the winning side, Troy Deeney, scored a vital late equaliser in the regulation time and went on to upload a series of pictures of him celebrating on the pitch and then later with his family & friends.

His Instagram post’s caption read, "What a day, one that will live long in the memory for sure, proud moment for me personally but couldn't wish to share it with people that have helped me out in tough times I love you all and thank you. From paying £10 subs to a FA Cup final in 13 years."

However, the post allegedly received a series of racially abusive comments that has prompted the Englishman to block comments on his profile. The forward further went on to explain his actions through another post where he also uploaded the slogan for the Premier League’s new ‘No Room For Racism’ campaign.

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His post read, “Due to events from the last 24 hours, I will be taking comments off my posts. To me, this isn't a game, when you racially abuse my family or myself I have to take measures to prevent young people seeing these comments and thinking that it's acceptable, And having to expose people I care about to these small minded people.”

The incidents involving players at the receiving end of racial abuse are becoming more frequent in England along with the rest of European countries. While on national duty, Raheem Sterling and Danny Rose were at the receiving end of racial abuse in their Euro 2020 qualifier against Montenegro. Moise Kean of Juventus was also racially abused by the home fans in their away fixture at Cagliari. Wilfried Zaha, Nathan Bryne and Duan Holmes were also racially abused on Saturday.

Influential football figures such as Gary Neville have implored the governing bodies to come together to take real action against those responsible. South Korean ace, Heung-Min Son, has also voiced out his concerns over seeing racism in England, and expressed himself by saying that, “We are playing football. That is the important thing. You protect the players who receive racism and fight it all together.” Apparently, it was confirmed after due investigation that Son received racial abuse during Tottenham’s defeat to Manchester United at Wembley earlier in the campaign.