Newcastle's Joe Willock receives online racist abuse 'every day'

Midfielder Joe Willock completed a successful loan spell with Newcastle United earlier this year before making a permanent move to the Magpies from Arsenal for a reported £25 million transfer fee last week. 

According to Reuters (h/t ESPN), Willock told BBC Radio Newcastle that he routinely receives racist messages online via social media platforms. 

"Every day I get messages," the 21-year-old explained. "Messages saying about my color or different things that are disgusting, really.

"There's not much you can do — you just have to try and ignore it. I don't think Instagram, Facebook and Twitter have put up enough of a fight for us to do anything else ... It hurts a lot — even speaking about it." 

Willock admitted he contemplated quitting all social media because of such hate-filled messages but added: 

"If you come off social media, you lose that connection with all the wonderful fans that are supporting me every day, want to see my everyday life and see what I do and have that connection with me over the platform that they wouldn't have in real life."

Earlier this week, a 43-year-old man named Scott McCluskey was charged with sending a racist and/or offensive Facebook message following the UEFA European Championship final between England and Italy last month. England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were specifically targeted with online racist abuse after the loss to Italy on penalties. 

The English Premier League vowed to issue permanent bans from attending all league matches for individuals found guilty of behaving "in a discriminatory or abusive way" toward any personnel or supporters either in-person or online.