LONDON: The Football Association has urged police to tackle abuse on social media after rape and death threats were made to England midfielder Karen Carney.

Chelsea’s Carney, 31, received the messages on Instagram after Wednesday’s Champions League win over Fiorentina.

The user has been removed from Instagram, with the FA saying it is “appalled” and “dismayed”, but Carney will not be reporting it to police. England boss Phil Neville described the messages as “absolutely disgraceful”. Chelsea said they were “abhorrent and totally unacceptable”.

The posts began: “How many chances you need to score in second half bitches” before making rape and death threats. It is understood the user is not known to Carney, who wrote “wow, some people…” in response to the messages.

An FA statement said: “The FA takes such matters extremely seriously. The abuse of players on social networking sites is a serious concern and we call on the police and social media organisations to do everything they can to help tackle this growing problem.

“We provide all our senior England players with training, guidance and support on the use of social media and treat our duty of care in this regard with the utmost importance.”

Carney has won 133 England caps since making her international debut in 2005.

The Metropolitan Police said it “takes allegations of threatening and abusive behaviour very seriously” and encourages any victims of such crimes to contact police so an investigation can be carried out.

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