Sheffield United vow to identify culprit after David McGoldrick is targeted with vile racist message on Instagram

McGoldrick, who scored his first Premier League goal at the weekend in a brace against Chelsea, shared a screenshot of the disgusting message on his own social media.

“As a club we will support David McGoldrick and will do all we can to find the perpetrator of the disgusting message posted on social media,” a statement from United read.

"We will work with the Premier League and all the relevant authorities to ensure the person behind this post is brought to justice.“

The vile post, which has been widely condemned on social media by fans of United and other clubs alike, was sent to McGoldrick’s public Instagram page by an account without a name or a face. It is understood that the account that sent the message has since been deleted.

The vile message read: “You f****** dirty n*****! Your n***** life defo doesn’t matter! F*** you ya bold c**** Where were you when you played Manure, you f****** s*** a**.”

McGoldrick was the driving force between the Premier League’s players taking a knee before games, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement that has gathered such pace since the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minnesota back in May.

Before United played Aston Villa in the first game back after the coronavirus suspension, McGoldrick is understood to have approached skipper Billy Sharp with the idea of taking the knee, which became a powerful symbol against police brutality after Colin Kaepernick led the way in the NFL. Sharp approached Villa’s Tom Heaton and just before kick-off, with the eyes of the world watching, both sets of players and officials took a knee before kick-off.

It was a simple yet powerful and moving message, with both sets of players wearing ‘Black Lives Matter’ on their shirts, and players have taken the knee in each game since. But, as the disgusting abuse bravely shared by McGoldrick shows, there is still more work to be done.