Chris Wilder has described the racist abuse received by Sheffield United’s Mason Holgate this week as “an absolute disgrace” after the defender’s red card against Brighton last weekend. The on-loan Everton man was sent off for a rash tackle on Kaoru Mitoma and will miss United’s next three games, starting with their trip to Wolves on Sunday.
The defender apologised to his teammates in the dressing room after their eventual 5-0 defeat after his early red card, and again on social media this week – alongside a video showing some of the shocking messages he received via his Instagram page. “I can only apologise for letting my team-mates, club + fans down on the weekend & have done so this week personally,” Holgate wrote.
“However, the last 48 hours have been difficult to take… the constant racist abuse across my social media… here are some of the messages! As a sport + society we need to do more and there needs to be consequences for racism!”
United, along with Holgate’s parent club Everton, issued a statement to condemn the abuse and Wilder, speaking ahead of the trip to Molineux, said: “It’s an absolute disgrace and yet again, social media companies are putting money over everything else for what is happening – not just from a sport and a football point of view, but from a social point of view. For him to receive those messages and for us, as in-the-limelight characters, having to receive those messages is a disgrace.
“We understand criticism. We understand the chat in the pub, the phone-ins, maybe a couple of letters in the Green ‘Un criticising you. But to the extent it’s going, it’s an absolute disgrace. We all talk about and say that [social media users] have to be registered with a show of a passport or a driving licence but it’ll never happen and it’s an absolute disgrace what’s happening. It’s fully unjustified. He’s played a game of football, he’s made a mistake and you’ve seen everything that comes out as a result.”
Holgate will also miss United’s clashes with Arsenal and Bournemouth, with Auston Trusty in line to come in and replace him if Wilder sticks with the back-three formation he utilised against Luton and Brighton recently.
