A dad-of-two has denied tweeting racist comments calling for England ace Marcus Rashford to "burn his MBE" - claiming his Twitter account was hacked.
Nick Scott, 50, denied tweeting: "@MarcusRashford that MBE needs burning ya fake. Pack them bags and get to ya own country."
The tweet was posted at 10.56pm on Sunday - just minutes after the 23-year-old Manchester United striker missed from the spot in the nail-biting penalty shoot-out.
The vile tweet came from Mr Scott's Twitter page.
It was followed up at 12.43am today (12/7) with a tweet which read: "i need to apologise @MarcusRashford but im still very angry. but not with you."
The tweet attracted more than 500 replies from outraged football fans demanding the author be banned from ever watching or taking part in the sport.
Today Mr Scott, of Malvern, Worcs., denied sending the tweet, claiming his account had been hacked.
He said: "I've had to delete my account this morning because I was hacked.
"I would never tweet anything like that. I'm just a football fan."
Mr Scott has a YouTube page and describes himself as an "Away Day Videographer" following Wolverhampton Wanderers.
West Mercia Police are investigating the racist tweet.
A force spokesman said: "We can confirm that we are aware of a racist comment made by an individual on social media, directed towards a professional footballer.
"Screenshots have been passed to officers who are currently investigating the incident to establish who this individual is.
"Comments like this have absolutely no place in society. As a force we take a hard stand against any sort of discrimination and this includes online abuse."
Gareth Southgate described the racist online abuse directed at some of England's players after the Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy as "unforgivable".
Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho were all targeted by abusive posts in the wake of their missed penalties in the shoot-out.
Figures within the sport, from the Government and even the Duke of Cambridge were united in their condemnation for the abuse, and Southgate said: "For some of them to be abused is unforgivable really.
"I know a lot of that has come from abroad, that people who track those things have been able to explain that, but not all of it.
"It's just not what we stand for. We have been a beacon of light in bringing people together in people being able to relate to the national team, and the national team stands for everybody and so that togetherness has to continue.
"We have shown the power our country has when it does come together and has that energy and positivity together.
"We heal together as a team now, and we're there for them, and I know that 99 per cent of the public will be as well.
"Bukayo in particular has been an absolute star in this tournament, (he has shown) incredible maturity and the way he has played has brought a smile to so many people's faces.
"He's become such a popular member of the group and I know he has got everybody's support."
The Duke of Cambridge, who is president of the Football Association, said he was "sickened" by the abuse.
"It is totally unacceptable that players have to endure this abhorrent behaviour," he wrote on Twitter.
"It must stop now and all those involved should be held accountable."
Twitter said it had proactively removed more than 1,000 posts over the past 24 hours which violated its policy and also taken swift action to permanently suspend a number of accounts.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, said it tries to remove harmful content as quickly as possible and encouraged people to use the tools it offers to block abuse.
