I’ll Walk Off The Pitch If I’m Racially Abused Again -Odion Ighalo

Former Nigeria’s Super Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo says he will leave the pitch if he is racially abused again in his career.

The Shanghai Shenhua goal poacher, who is currently on loan at Manchester United, claimed he was racially abuse by a opposition player during a game in China said he is prepared to walk off the pitch if he is subjected to racist abuse again.

“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.

“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,” Ighalo said.

The former Watford striker, who has thrown his back on the Black Lives Matter campaign, a movement re-energised on a global scale since the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minnesota, USA, said no-one should ever condone racism.

“Nobody should condone racism,’he added. ‘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,” he added.

Packaged by Lanre Olabisi