Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri will not speak to Callum Hudson-Odoi about racist abuse

Action Images via Reuters
Vaishali Bhardwaj29 March 2019

Maurizio Sarri said he will not be speaking to Callum Hudson-Odoi about the racist abuse the Chelsea winger twice suffered in the space of 11 days because it's a "problem" he cannot solve.

Hudson-Odoi was one of several England players who were targeted by racist chants in the nation's 5-1 Euro 2020 qualifying win in Montenegro on Monday night.

The incident which occurred less than two weeks after Chelsea lodged a complaint with Uefa after the 18-year-old said he was racially abused in the closing stages of the Blues' 5-0 Europa win away to Dynamo Kiev.

Uefa are investigating that incident while also confirming this week that Montenegro have been hit with five charges, including one count of racist behaviour.

Chelsea have offered Hudson-Odoi all the support he feels he may need, although Sarri has said he won't be speaking to the winger personally - but thinks the 18-year-old is strong enough mentally to deal with the issue.

When asked by reporters at Cobham on Friday whether he had already addressed the subject of the racist abuse with Hudson-Odoi, Sarri replied: "No, not for the moment.

"And I don't like to speak to him about this problem because, unfortunately, I am not able to solve it.

"In every country there are some stupid people, I think. So it's a big problem. I think that we need to do something different. Probably it's right to stop the match for 10 minutes at the first situation."

Sarri was then asked whether he would be prepared to tell his players to walk off the pitch should they experience racism during a match, to which the Chelsea boss replied: "We need a rule, I think.

"A rule for the Premier League, but for all the championships across football. A rule that can permit us to stop the match."

Bringing the talk back to Hudson-Odoi, Sarri insisted the Chelsea starlet has a strong enough personality to process the two incidents of racial abuse with both club and country in the past few weeks.

PA

"Of course he is very young. But I think that he is really very strong," Sarri added. "The character is really very strong. I saw him very well yesterday. So I think that he's strong enough."

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