'It's never acceptable' - Kyle Walker shares racist abuse he received after Juventus defeat as Man City captain blasts social media companies for failure to act

The reigning English champions are enduring a nightmare run of form having won just one out of their last 10 matches across all competitions. They momentarily regained form with a convincing 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on December 4, but they once again faced defeat against Juventus on Wednesday in the Champions League.

Fans were understandably unhappy with their performance in Turin, however, an unfortunate event happened in the aftermath of the defeat as club captain Walker was subject to horrible racial attacks on social media. Walker to Instagram to share a couple of screenshots of people racially attacking him in the direct message as he called for social media companies to take strict action against such vile behaviour.

The England international shared two screenshots on his Instagram story and wrote: "No-one should ever be subject to the sort of vile, racist and threatening abuse I have received online since last night's match. Instagram and the authorities need to stop this happening for the sake of all who are suffering this abuse. It is never acceptable. To our fans, we will continue to work as a team to do better, to improve, and to turn the corner together."

IG:@kylewalker2

In his second story, he wrote: "Unacceptable".

IG:@kylewalker2

The club released an official statement to support their skipper as it read: "Manchester City strongly condemns the racist abuse that Kyle Walker was subject to online following last night’s fixture. We refuse to tolerate discrimination of any kind, regardless of whether that be in stadiums or online. We will be offering Kyle our full support following the disgusting treatment he has received."

City will aim to get back to winning ways this Sunday as they take on arch-rivals Manchester United in the Manchester derby at Etihad Stadium.