Wilfried Zaha claimed he was racially abused on social media on Saturday, shortly after his Crystal Palace manager Frank de Boer accused West Brom’s players of targeting the winger during a pre-season friendly.
Zaha added a message to his Instagram story following the 2-0 victory in Hong Kong, suggesting followers of his former club Manchester United and their rivals Liverpool had sent him abuse.
“If Man United and Liverpool fans feel better by calling me a black monkey in my messages … feel free to carry on if it makes your day better,” he wrote.
De Boer, who was appointed Palace manager last month, had earlier called on referees to provide more protection for 24-year-old Zaha, who faced a series of strong tackles from the West Brom defence in the match.
“If you want to sell the product of the Premier League and the beauty of the game, the beauty is not those kind of challenges,” said the Dutchman.
“Of course when it’s a fair challenge it’s no problem, but for example they were really looking for Wilfried Zaha so we cannot accept that,” de Boer added.
“He is one of the most exciting players in the Premier League and I don’t want to think about him being out for a couple of weeks or months.
“The first challenge on him should have been a yellow card. I have to give Wilf a compliment because he stayed calm, spoke with his feet and made a big step forward.“Because of his speed, quality and technique sometimes he will get past two or three players and he is so fast he will get fouled a lot. If the referee looks back then he could have had two or three more fouls in his favour.”
Palace won the Premier League Asia Trophy match through goals from Luka Milivojevic and Bakary Sako.
West Brom captain Jonny Evans began the game in midfield but was substituted with an ankle problem after 23 minutes. Manager Tony Pulis was not concerned about the injury and hinted Evans may feature more regularly in midfield.