IRELAND INTERNATIONAL Aaron Connolly has deleted his Twitter account after receiving a barrage of social media abuse, The42 understands.
The 21-year-old Galway native was targeted after seeing his shot cleared off the line in Brighton’s recent 1-0 win over Tottenham.
According to a piece by Andy Naylor of The Atheltic, most of the abuse is understood to have come from gamblers.
It is the latest in a series of online abuse controversies in football.
Earlier this year, pundit Karen Carney chose to delete her account after receiving abuse from Leeds supporters over an opinion she offered while analysing a match for Amazon Prime.
There have also been countless incidents involving abuse of a racist nature, with Ireland U21 international Jonathan Afolabi and senior international Cyrus Christie among those targeted.
Many in football have called for a clampdown on such abuse, with Frank Lampard among those who believe social media companies must do more to tackle this issue.
Twitter had not responded to The42′s request for a comment at the time of publication.
Great fighter and great steal for Bellator. UFCs partnership with Reebok is turning a lot of fighters against them. Good to see Bellator getting stronger as they promote Irish lads under the Bamma banner
Donegals Joesph Duffy has left the UFC also. He refused a new contract. The Reebok deal really is screwing up the fighters earning capacity.
@Gary: Ryan Bader came out recently and said he was earning 3-4 times more at Bellator due to sponsorships than at UFC since the Reebok deal. Hopefully more follow and switch
@brucelee on the decline?? He’s top 5 and if he beat weidmen (highly likely he would have) could have got a title shot
@Ronan Barrett: he did beat Weidman
He’s on the decline but this signing is a great statement by bellator.
@Bruce Lee: Please explain how he is on the decline.
As step backwards for mousasi , bet he will be back in UFC after fight deal ends .
Hope he fights at LHW because middleweight is barren in Bellator. They have a few big name old fighters they could feed to him. Then he can get revenge on King Mo and win the belt against Bader