Aston Villa have reported "sickening" online racist abuse of winger Tyreik Wright to West Midlands Police.

Wright, 19, is currently on loan at Walsall and the League Two club are working with Villa over the issue.

He was abused after posting a news story about schoolchildren avoiding criminal charges for a racially motivated attack on another student.

Villa said the Republic of Ireland youth international "received sickening and abhorrent messages" on Instagram.

The club is working with West Midlands Police's Hate Crime Unit in investigating the incident.

Walsall said the club "will not tolerate racism or discrimination in any shape or form", while Villa said they will "do everything we can to report and help root out all forms of discrimination".

The incident is the latest in a long list of online cases of abuse.

Swansea midfielder Yan Dhanda recently criticised Facebook's decision to keep open the account of the person who racially abused him on social media.

Manchester United players Marcus Rashford, Axel Tuanzebe, Anthony Martial and Lauren James have been targets of racist abuse on social media, along with West Brom's Romaine Sawyers and Chelsea defender Reece James - Lauren's brother.

Newcastle boss Steve Bruce revealed he had been made aware of social media users wishing him dead, while referee Mike Dean recently stood down from a Premier League game after he and his family received death threats.

Facebook - which owns Instagram - recently told BBC Sport it was tightening its rules around online abuse.

The platform said it will disable the accounts of those found to have repeatedly sent abusive private messages on Instagram.

Users may previously have had their account blocked for a set period but repeat offenders will now have their accounts fully disabled.

The ongoing abuse has led the Football Association to call for government action, which has since stated social media companies could face "large fines" potentially amounting to "billions of pounds" if they fail to tackle abuse on their platforms.
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