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Manchester United forward, Odion Ighalo has vowed to leave the pitch if he is racially abused again.
The 30-year-old Nigerian international revealed he was called ‘all sorts of names’ by an opposition player during a match in China, but had to let it go, after the Chinese FA took no action over his report.
Ighalo said he is now prepared to walk off the pitch if such abuse is repeated. “It should not be done to any player or anyone in the world,” he told Sky Sports.
“If it happens to me I would report it to the referee and see what they do, but if they don’t take action about it then I’m going to walk off because it should not be done to any player or anyone in the world,” he said.
“In one game in China I got called all sorts of names and after the game, I didn’t shake his hand. I walked straight into the dressing room, I was angry, I reported it to the FA.
“I didn’t press forward with it, I just let it go because I’m just this kind of guy. I don’t like to drag issues out. But I don’t think it should be condoned in any country.”
The former Watford striker also joined the Black Lives Matter campaign; an anti-racism movement that was reawakened after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minnesota in US, as a result of endured kneeling on his neck and head by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin.
“Nobody should condone racism,” he said. We are all human. Despite the colour of our skin, we are all the same, we live in the same world, the same life.
“I don’t condone racism, but at the same time, I don’t condone riots. We have to start from the younger generation, educate them, let them see that all humans are the same. We should fight for humanity not colours.”
It should be recalled his Old Trafford club agreed to extend his loan deal from Shanghai Shenhua till 2021.