Ben Godfrey has addressed the fight against racism in the wake of disgusting online abuse faced by some of England's Euro 2020 squad.
The Three Lions lost in the final of this summer's tournament on Sunday evening at Wembley after a penalty shootout, with Italy claiming the trophy.
In the aftermath of the result, deplorable racist abuse was sent to the players who missed England's spot kicks - Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka.
Waves of support for the trio have since followed, but Godfrey admitted there was a certain inevitability surrounding the first vile comments.
However, the Everton defender knows that society has to keep working hard to change that.
Godfrey told evertontv : “Sad as it is, it was always coming. You expected it to happen and it shouldn’t be like that.
“That is the world we are living in at the minute. We have to keep working hard to try to change that. We shouldn’t live in a world where football effects people’s lives outside in terms of race.
“It is disappointing to see. I think the majority of the country will back the lads and it is important we do that.
“Every black player has experienced it [online abuse] at some point, through social media, or whatever it might be.
“I think if you asked 99 per cent of young black players, it is something we have all been through and we all deal with it in different ways.”
Speaking to the media on Monday, Gareth Southgate described the abuse faced by members of his squad as "unforgivable".
And Godfrey has made clear that football and society shouldn't be deterred in their fight against racism, and urged everyone to continue their battle to change this situation.
“We have to do every single bit we can to try to change the situation we are in and it is going to take a lot of hard work and educating of people to do that,” said Godfrey.
“But we will consistently try to turn it around and change that.
“We won’t stop until the world is a far better place and these things stop happening.”
