Ian Wright details horrific racial abuse he received in Instagram direct message

Ian Wright has detailed the horrific and sickening racial abuse he has received in a number of Instagram direct messages.

Wright, who shone for Arsenal, Crystal Palace and England during a glittering career, is still a popular figure on TV screens.

He is regularly seen on Match of the Day with many often agreeing with the former striker’s views.

But not all are friendly towards the 56-year-old, with Wright taking to Twitter to detail some of the awful messages he has received on Instagram.

Wright tweeted alongside a screenshot of the messages: “I know I'm not meant to look at them but these messages still hit me so hard man. This is a child!!! ‘You are a f***ing monkey’, ‘C*** c**n monkey n*****’. Direct message to me on IG. This kid [h]as a direct line into me & is able to send this without any worry.”

The sickening messages, all coming from the same account, include: “You are a f***ing monkey”, “Your like 65 years old if I get corona I will cough in your face and give you your death sentence”, and “I hate all your family”.

There are plenty of racist messages too, though Wright has received plenty of support on Twitter.

The ex-forward has previously been vocal when talking about players suffering racist abuse.

Ian Wright was sent some sickening messages

They were full of racial abuse towards the Arsenal hero

When England were abused during their clash in Bulgaria last year, Wright said: “Look at that, it says everything you need to know about UEFA. We’re looking at a stadium here where half of it is closed with banners that have done nothing.

“That’s the extent of what they feel they are doing to combat racism in this country.

“The fact is, we’ve seen a set of people who have got no respect, they don’t care, and UEFA are doing nowhere near enough. I’m so proud we’re doing what we’re doing at the moment.

All of the messages appeared to come from the same account

“The thing about it is you feel physically sick but you’ve got to continue playing through that. What we’re seeing now is that you don’t and that’s what is good.

“It’s a terrible day for Bulgarian people and how they are being represented but it’s a great day in respects of trying to tackle racism because we can see over in that stand, those banners mean nothing.

"What we’re seeing is a set of fans who do not care and need educating.

“As a black player, we’ve heard it for many years about walking off, it’s something you don’t want to do because you do need your white players to do that for you, so you can go off together, how powerful it is, that will do something.”