&#8216;He loves me too much&#8217; &#8211; Pogba defends Zlatan over claims he used racist words against Lukaku

Man Utd midfielder, Paul Pogba has jumped to the defence of his former teammate, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, following claims that the Swede used racist language in his confrontation with Romelu Lukaku on Tuesday.

The two players butted heads and exchanged some extreme words in Tuesday night’s Coppa Italia match between AC Milan and Inter Milan.

Lukaku is reported to have said “f*** you and your wife” to Ibrahimovic while the Swede is quoted as having called the Belgian striker a donkey and made comments about voodoo.

This has led to accusations that Ibrahimovic used racist language against Lukaku.

The AC Milan forward has since denied the claims in a tweet, stating that his world has no place for racism.

“In ZLATAN’s world there is no place for RACISM. We are all the same race – we are all equal !!”

Zlatan… racist? 🤨 He loves me too much so he's the last person I'd think of as racist! Come on, don't joke with that one! 🤣

— Paul Pogba (@paulpogba) January 27, 2021

Pogba tweeted in Zlatan’s defence, stating that the forward “loves me too much so he’s the last person I’d think of as racist.”

Both AC Milan and Inter Milan are yet to comment on the matter while Zlatan is reported to have apologised to his teammates for being sent off but rejected claims he made racist comments.

The Italian Football Federation discussed the issue on Wednesday with an update expected on Friday.

Despite his insistence that he did not use racist language in his tweet after the match Ibrahimovic, however, could not resist having a last dig at Lukaku, concluding his post by saying: “We are all PLAYERS some better than others.”

In ZLATAN’s world there is no place for RACISM.
We are all the same race – we are all equal !!
We are all PLAYERS some better then others.https://t.co/DhguHUOFte

— Zlatan Ibrahimović (@Ibra_official) January 27, 2021

It appears that neither player is ready to let their anger go anytime soon after Lukaku also seemed to channel all his frustration into the match-levelling penalty even after Ibrahimovic had been sent off.