Mesut Ozil will no longer appear in Pro Evolution Soccer computer games in China following his comments on Uighur Muslims in the country.
Pro Evolution has long been heralded as the big rivals to the FIFA computer game franchise.
But German star Ozil will not be seen in any Pro Evolution game in China after he was wiped by the game's producers Konami.
Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority in China, and there are claims that they have been subjected to persecution by the Chinese authorities.
Unhappy with this, Ozil took a stand and posted a strong message about the issue on his personal Instagram account last Friday.
"East Turkistan, the bleeding wound of the Ummah, resisting against the persecutors trying to separate them from their religion," the message read.
"They burn their Qurans. They shut down their mosques. They ban their schools. They kill their holy men. The men are forced into camps and their families are forced to live with Chinese men.
"The women are forced to marry Chinese men.
"But Muslims are silent. They won’t make a noise. They have abandoned them.
"Don’t they know that giving consent for persecution is persecution itself?"
Ozil's stance earned the backing of the United States' secretary of state Mike Pompeo, but former Man City star Yaya Toure urged the midfielder to stick to football and keep his political views to himself.
And speaking out on his political views have had an impact on the gaming world, with Konami's Chinese publishers NetEase telling the Evening Standard : "Ozil has hurt the feelings of Chinese fans and violated the sport's spirit of love and peace. We do not understand, accept or forgive this!"
football.london approached Konami UK on the subject but they declined to comment.
