Kyle Walker-Peters suffers sickening racist abuse online after injuring Manchester United starlet Alejandro Garnacho

Southampton defender Kyle Walker-Peters was the subject of racial abuse online following his side's goalless draw with Manchester United on Sunday.

Several racist comments, including monkey emojis, were posted in the comments section beneath a week-old post on the player's Instagram profile on Sunday.

One of the comments referenced Manchester United substitute Alejandro Garnacho, who had to be substituted off after Walker-Peters injured him in a tackle.

The United youngster left Old Trafford on crutches but Erik ten Hag later said that his injury is "not too bad."

On Monday morning, Southampton published the following statement on their website.

"In February 2021 the club made a statement about one of our young players receiving abhorrent racial abuse following a match against Manchester United.

"More than two years on, we find ourselves in the exact same position: disgusted and disappointed in the behaviour of those online who lower themselves to abusing players for the colour of their skin.

"What is equally frustrating is the lack of meaningful action in those two years from the social media platforms who allow such hatred to breed and fester.

"As we have said before, Southampton Football Club fights every day to remove such people from our sport and our community in order to protect our players, our staff, Southampton fans and those football supporters around the world who recognise and celebrate the diversity that makes football special.

"We have forwarded the messages concerned to Hampshire Police in keeping with our normal processes when dealing with these cases.

"We have also reported these posts to the social media platforms involved.

"We can only hope that they finally pay attention to what continues to be a major problem and that we do not find ourselves repeating these words in another two years time."

This season, the Premier League and club captains decided that players would raise awareness about racism in football by taking the knee before selected matches.

Earlier this month, the Premier League launched an investigation into allegations of internal racism made by a former member of their diversity and inclusion team.