SOCIAL MEDIA ABUSE IS JUST NORTH ON SAYS FED-UP WALES WINGER GEORGE

GEORGE NORTH has opened up on living with online abuse after his Wales captain was trolled by keyboard warriors.

North should have been running out behind Alun Wyn Jones today on the occasion of the skipper’s world record-equalling 148th cap.

Instead, Wales’ Six Nations clash with Scotland was called off 24 hours before kick-off with many fans from north of the border having made the trip to Cardiff.

The late decision capped a frustrating end to a difficult week for Jones, who had hoped to move on from last Saturday’s defeat at

Twickenham and the furore over Joe Marler grabbing his genitals (right). When the England prop was handed a 10-week ban, trolls on social media went for Jones for having dared to say he “hoped” World Rugby would look at the incident.

“Social media can be a nightmare,” said North. “It’s great to be so accessible to fans and to see camaraderie online is brilliant. But the flip side is hard.

“Al wasn’t pointing fingers and I don’t understand why he is getting the abuse he is. If you look at the situation he was put in, I thought he dealt with it extremely well. “The abuse wears down on you. He’s got a young family and doesn’t need that when he goes home, to be constantly reminded about that, when really he didn’t do anything wrong. He just stood there and had his peeper honked.”

North says people think it is OK to say “whatever they want”, often linked to his history of concussions. “Even walking round Tesco I get told I should retire,” said the Lions wing. “People comment without ever seeing me, treating me, knowing my symptoms, my history. To have that on you all the time, it’s hard. It’s the effect it has on your family. It’s mad, what it does – and people think it’s fine.

“They haven’t got a Scooby Doo about what we do Monday to Friday. They only see that game on a Saturday where they think they could have done better, ‘If they hadn’t blown their knee out when they were 12’.”