The police have been called to investigate claims Yaya Toure was racially abused within hours of reactivating his Twitter account.
Manchester City midfielder Toure rejoined Twitter on Monday, five months after leaving the social network site in order to focus on the World Cup.
The Ivory Coast international posted his first tweet at 6pm, reflecting on City's derby win over Manchester United the previous day.
He wrote: "Great to be back on twitter after a good win yesterday. Now my focus is on the next game... Happy Monday everyone!!"
Within hours of posting the message, the 31-year-old received abusive and racist messages from other Twitter accounts.
Anti-discrimination group Kick It Out was appalled by some of the tweets and decided to report the matter to the police.
"NEWS: We are informing the Police of racist tweets directed @yayatoure earlier this evening and offer him our full support #kickitout," KIO posted on Twitter.
Source: PA
