Declan Rice has revealed the death threats and online abuse he has received since deciding to play for England over the Republic of Ireland.
The West Ham midfielder played through the age groups with the Republic of Ireland up until under-18 level – and actually made three appearances at senior level, but not in competitive games.
But in February this year Rice, 22 opted to play for England – to outrage in Ireland – and is set to win his fifth cap against Kosovo on Tuesday night (7.45pm).
Now Rice has revealed that he and his family have received death threats – with people threatening to come to his family home.
Rice, though, laughed off the threats as he revealed: “I’ve had a few bad bits, I’ve had people saying they’re going to come to my house… online.
“There’s a few bits I could go into but I don’t need to go into it, threats to my family, threats to me.
“I was never actually scared about it because always fans are going to be giving me abuse over it and you look at it and laugh, you think, yeah alright as if you’re going to come and do that type of thing.
“It was tough, there has been some abuse, it was more for my mum and dad really.
“They were more worried about me than anyone else, I was always quite strong minded.
“My mum obviously with me being her youngest, she was always a bit worried. Other than that, I don’t take no notice of it. I just try to keep focused.”
He added: “It’s outrageous, even with the racism thing.
“If you look at half these people’s profiles, they’re fake. There’s someone behind it but they’re using a fake profile and they’re still getting caught out.
“We’re in 2019 and it’s happening week in week out, it’s not good enough, we need to stamp our authority better.”