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Men’s football Danny Rose: Punishment racist countries receive is ‘bollocks’

And England defender says that people are at risk if league returns

ENGLAND and Tottenham defender Danny Rose has again criticised the level of punishment that countries receive for racist abuse, describing it as “bollocks.”

In an Instagram Live discussion with musician Don E, the left-back, currently on loan at Newcastle, said that he would try and “write someone off” if racism occurred when his side were losing a match.

It was just one of a number of issues that the outspoken Rose talked freely about. On the prospect of a Premier League resumption, he admitted: “I don’t give a fuck about the nation’s morale, people’s lives are at risk.”

Rose has spoken out before about the racist abuse he received when playing for England in Montenegro last March, when he and several team-mates were subjected to monkey chants.

The Montenegro FA received a €20,000 (£17,253) fine and were ordered to play a game behind closed doors; Rose says not enough is being done.

“Is walking off teaching them a lesson? If you walk off, it’s nothing,” he said.

“They are getting fined £10,000. It’s bollocks. The FA, when it happened, they were brilliant, they couldn’t have done any more. But the higher powers? Of course they can do more. It is just one of those things.

“It was a lot worse when we were kids, and the generation before had it worse, so hopefully it is better for the generation coming through.”

On how he would react if he received abuse again, he said: “Whatever. If I was losing 2-0 or 3-0 and I heard it, I would try and write someone off, I am not going to lie. If I am winning, you just get on with it.”

Rose also touched further on the depression he suffered prior to the 2018 World Cup, admitting that a serious knee injury, which put the brakes on a protracted big-money move away from Spurs, sparked his illness.

“I was doing well in 2016-17 and I maybe had a chance of leaving, and I got injured and it killed me,” he said. “[Right-back] Kyle Walker left, which he deserved to — and I am over the moon for him — but part of me wished that was me.

“That was the start of it. I got a bad injury, I was out for nine months and then my uncle committed suicide, so that was one part.

“It was a slippery cycle, but I am fine now, that was a couple of years ago.”

There were more light-hearted moments during the interview, with Rose describing an incident that illustrated his youthful short fuse.

In his early days at Spurs, Rose, on the subs’ bench, was sulking after then manager Harry Redknapp failed to bring him on — and his mood got worse afterwards.

“On the Monday we were back in training, and my head was still gone,” Rose admitted. “Then I got nutmegged in training and all the lads started busting up, and I was thinking: I can’t have this.

“We were doing finishing after that and I have hit one wide, and I have gone to collect a ball and I have seen my car, and I thought: Fuck this, I am going home.

“So I got in my car in my boots and everything, and I drove home. I called my mum and said I don’t want to play football any more. I was 18 or 19. I spoke to her, I was emotional and she calmed me down.”

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