Andre Onana has said that Manchester United teammate Alejandro Garnacho should not be punished for his use of gorilla emojis in a recent social media post.
Onana saved a last-minute penalty to help United beat Copenhagen 1-0 at Old Trafford in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.
Later on Tuesday night, Garnacho tweeted a photo of Onana and his teammates celebrating on the pitch.
Uruguayan Garnacho captioned the image with two gorilla emojis.
The tweet has since been deleted after Garnacho received a social media backlash and was accused of posting racist content.
However, Cameroon international Onana has spoken out in defense of Garnacho.
"People cannot choose what I should be offended by. I know exactly what @Garnacho7 meant: power and strength," Onana wrote on Instagram.
"This matter should go no further."
But Garnacho could yet face a punishment from the Football Association.
The FA is aware of the deleted post and has asked Garnacho to explain it.
Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva was fined £50,000 and banned for one game by the FA in 2019 after he posted a tweet likening teammate Benjamin Mendy to the character on a packet of Conguitos - a popular chocolate brand in Spain and Portugal.
The punishment was handed out despite the FA accepting that Silva "did not intend" for his tweet to be "racist".
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