Abuse hurts my family – Williams

LIAM Williams says social media abuse doesn’t affect him as he has “a rhino skin”, but that it hurts his family.

The Lions full-back came in for some outrageous attacks following the yellow card he received in the latter stages of Wales’ heartbreaking defeat to France in Paris, which denied them the Six Nations Grand Slam.

The WRU responded by putting out a statement condemning such comments.

Now Williams has addressed the issue in his BBC column.

“The WRU wanted to highlight this abuse and publicly show some of the examples I received and I agreed. This should not be happening,” he said.

“I want to stress to these cowards who abuse people on social media, it does not affect me personally because I have rhino skin and am strong mentally. I don’t want people to feel sorry for me.

“They can say what they want, it is not me that it hurts. It’s my mum, dad, sister, brother and nephew and that is not nice.

“I know a lot of guys in the Wales squad who are affected by messages they receive, it hurts them personally and they don’t react maybe how I do.

“I have seen comments like players should come off social media if they don’t like it, but you should not have to do that because of abuse.

“You should not have to delete your accounts because you have received messages for having a yellow or red card or having done something stupid in a game.

“I have also seen two Welsh footballers being racially abused this week. These things should not happen. It has to stop; remember what we are receiving abuse for - playing for our country.”