A Twitter user claiming to be a gay Championship footballer has shut down his account the day before he was set to reveal his identity.
The @FootballerGay account, which had almost 50,000 followers, claimed to be run by a footballer who had come out to his family.
He previously said he would hold a press conference on Wednesday to reveal his identity.
But the account was suspended on Tuesday evening, with the profile biography changed to say: "I thought I was stronger. I was wrong.”
He later posted a tweet which said: “Call me all the names under the sun, belittle me and ridicule me, a lot will, and I can't change that, but I'm not strong enough to do this.
"Just remember that I've got feelings, without coming out I can't convince anybody otherwise, but this isn't a hoax. I wouldn't do that."
High-profile names in the sport who followed the account included former England striker Gary Lineker and Burton Albion forward Marvin Sordell.
When he launched the account, the footballer said: “I'm a professional footballer, playing for a club in the English Football League Championship.
"I will be revealing my identity soon, but I am a proud gay man, hoping to break the mould. I am under the age of 23, and today I came out to my family. Soon, I will come out publicly."
The player would have been just the second professional footballer to come out as gay while still playing, after Justin Fashanu almost 30 years ago.
Fashanu, who played for a number of clubs including Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, and Brighton and Hove Albion, came out in 1990.
His niece, Amal, said she was “disheartened” that the account had been closed and was “disappointed” that the footballer felt he couldn’t come out.
She told Sky News: “I'm pretty disheartened. It's actually upsetting. Have we made it that bad - the environment in football - that no one can actually come out?
"I'm just disappointed in a way and I feel kind of upset because if he actually is real and feels like he can't come out, that's really bad.
"That's what really concerns me the most - the fact he could be gay and, actually, has been going through really bad times and now he really feels like he doesn't want to come out."
