Chelsea call in police over Carney abuse as second player receives threats

Chelsea have reported the rape and death threats made to their England midfielder Karen Carney on social media to the police.

The messages were sent during Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Fiorentina in the first leg of the Women’s Champions League tie on Wednesday.

Carney wrote on Twitter: “I would like to take a moment to address the vile messages aimed at myself and my team-mates on social media this week.

“This kind of abuse is abhorrent, totally unacceptable and very upsetting. It was swiftly reported by the club as is standard practice. I now trust it will be dealt with by the correct authorities to ensure this doesn’t happen again to either myself or anyone else.”

England Women head coach Phil Neville again called on Instagram to “do a better job” at protecting his players following a second threat to an unidentified England player, who received a message reading “I’m going to rape and kill you” at 1am on Friday.

Neville shared a screengrab of the threat to his 448,000 Instagram followers with the caption condemning it.

The messages have sparked a furious reaction, with Chelsea men’s head coach Maurizio Sarri calling the abuse “disgusting”.

England and Lyon midfielder Izzy Christiansen also shared Carney’s story on Twitter yesterday, adding: “One of the many problems that the world of social media can cause in the world of sport. It should not even be possible for such hideous and inaccurate comments to reach the player.”

The Football Association said in a statement that it was “appalled and dismayed by the abuse directed towards Karen Carney”.

Instagram is understood to be investigating the messages.