‘I wish you cancer’: English footballer Karen Carney’s horrific messages from Instagram troll

Footballer Karen Carney has shared the rape and death threats she received during a match this week.

A follower wrote to the Chelsea and England star asking her how many chances she needed to score. The man also said he wished her cancer and leukaemia and said that he hoped someone would "rape her to death". Karen scored the only goal in Chelsea's 1-0 victory over Fiorentina in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday evening but the victory was marred by the vile messages, which she received during the second half. She shared a screenshot of the messages on her Instagram story after the game with the caption "Wow some people". The women's team manager, Phil Neville, also shared the messages and challenged Instagram to work harder to fight trolls. In a statement, the FA condemned the messages and said it was offering support to Karen. It backed the call for social media companies to take action.

"We are appalled and dismayed by the abuse directed towards Karen Carney on social media. The FA take such matters extremely seriously and we are offering our full support to Karen.

"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."

In response to the messages, a spokesperson for Instagram told BBC Sport; "We do not tolerate threatening or abusive behaviour and the account that sent these messages has been removed from Instagram." 20x20 is an ambitious two-year long initiative to better promote and champion women in sport. With the tagline of "if she can't see it, she can't be it," the 20x20 movement has three targets to reach by 2020:

• 20 percent more media coverage of women in sport
• 20 percent more female participation
• 20 percent more attendance at women’s competitions and events

And at Maximum Media, we're proud that Her and SportsJOE is backing the 20X20 movement as official digital media partners.