London, May 12 (IANS): Former Arsenal forward Ian Wright has revealed that he was recently subjected to vile racial abuse on popular social media platform Instagram.

Wright on Monday shared screenshots of the sickening messages he received on Instagram as he received support from top personalities related to football and others as well.

One of the messages he received, read: "Your (sic) like 65 years old if I get corona I will cough in your face and give you your death sentence. If I see you I will put you on your death bed."

After receiving such taunts, Wright took to Twitter to post a message which read: "I know I'm not meant to look at them but these messages still hit me so hard man. This is a child!!! This kid as a direct line into me & is able to send this without any worry."

Former Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor was also subjected to such vile abuses recently and the duo found support from Kick It Out -- an organisation that works for eradication of discrimination of any form within football community.

"We are appalled during this very trying time by the disgraceful abuse directed at Ian Wright and Gabriel Agbonlahor and their families," Kick It Out said in a statement as per Sky Sports.

"Racial hate speech and violent threats are totally unacceptable but have become sadly normalised on social media.

"Whilst we continue to collaborate with social media platforms to ensure a safer user experience for all, these cases should be investigated by law enforcement and the abusers should face criminal sanctions," the statement added.