Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings has become involved in a war of words with home secretary Priti Patel following England's Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy.
Patel expressed her outrage at the racial abused aimed at Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after their missed penalties - but faced backlash from Mings and many others due to her past comments regarding taking the knee.
Discussing players performing this gesture prior to Euro 2020 getting underway, Patel said that England fans had a right to boo and described the players' actions as "gesture politics."
Mings responded to this claim in an England press conference with a reserved response, as he explained that Patel had previously invited him to discuss this topic on a Zoom call.
"To the home secretary - I don't really have a direct message," he said when quizzed her on original comments.
"We spoke and she invited me onto a Zoom call once, where she seemed so interested and engrossed in players' kind of point of view and what we could do more to tackle these sort of issues.
"But at the same time, everybody's entitled to their own opinion. The home secretary is one of many, many people that oppose us taking the knee, or refuse to defend it.
"We have our own set of beliefs and what we think we can do to help or be players that can be influential and can stand up for what we believe in, and understandably when you have such strong beliefs there will be opposition to that."
England players took the knee ahead of every match at Euro 2020 and received backing from the majority of supporters inside stadiums.
But this was not enough to stop abusive messages being sent to Rashford, Sancho and Saka after they failed to convert their spot-kicks for the Three Lions.
Patel was quick to condemn the actions of those targeting the England trio, and tweeted: "I am disgusted that England players who have given so much for our country this summer have been subject to vile racist abuse on social media.
"It has no place in our country and I back the police to hold those responsible accountable."
But the 49-year-old was soon labelled a hypocrite by Mings, who pointed out how the home secretary had contradicted herself by posting this tweet.
"You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ & then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against happens," said the England defender.
Talks are currently ongoing to address the issue of abuse on social media and how companies must do more to protect individuals.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is fully behind this proposal and hopes to see action taken.
"Hopefully the laws will become stronger, we will all try to make a strong case out of that and hopefully it can have a big impact. I think it is the moment to put that right," he said.
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