Fred racially abused on Instagram after Man Utd's defeat to Liverpool

Manchester United midfielder Fred received racist abuse on Instagram following the 4-2 loss to Liverpool at Old Trafford on Thursday.

The 28-year-old started the game for United before being substituted for Mason Greenwood in the 63rd minute with United 3-1 down at the time.

After the game he was sent the abuse via the comment section of an image he posted on Instagram on Sunday, celebrating United's away win at Villa Park.

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The Brazilian was sent a number racially abusive messages, including racial slurs and 'monkey emojis'. He was previously racially abused this season after United's FA Cup exit to Leicester.

Back in March, Fred said "we are bigger and better than that" after being abused on social media following the quarter-final defeat.

Five days later, Instagram confirmed it had removed a number of accounts related to the incident.

Facebook declined to put a representative forward for interview when contacted by Sky Sports, but in a statement on Friday, a company spokesperson said: "The racist abuse on Fred's post is unacceptable and we don't want it on Instagram.

"We've removed a number of comments and taken action against the accounts that posted them. We encourage people to use our safety features, including Comment Filters and Message Controls, which can meaningfully decrease the abuse people experience.

"No single thing will fix this challenge overnight but we're committed to doing what we can to keep our community safe from abuse."

Fred's team-mates, Marcus Rashford, Axel Tuanzebe and Anthony Martial, and Manchester United Women's Lauren James have also been targeted for online racist abuse this season.

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